The Reaper
by Mana-Garmr
Summary: Reno's life before he becomes a Turk, and during his training and first few missions. Individual chapter warnings inside. Abuse, Anal, Angst, AU/AR, Language, M/M, Minor, N/C, Oral, Violence, Yaoi. COMPLETE
1. Prologue The Reaper

**Disclaimer Obviously, anything that I'm writing in a fanfiction zone is... fanfiction! Meaning the games I yanked the characters from, and the characters themselves, are not owned by me. Surprise, surprise. All OC's are mine though, so hands off :p**

**Aaand... apparently there's a disclaimer format that we all actually have to follow, oops :P So, I don't make money off of this either ;) (unfortunately, lol)**

**That aside, this is my first fic up on this site, and the first chapter is, sadly, very short. More will come relatively quickly, as I've had this bouncing around in my head for quite some time.**

**With that said, I've been a huge Reno fan for a really long time. Because of that, I've read countless Reno fanfics. Anything in this fic that bears resemblance to someone else's is completely unintentional, unrelated, and I apologize, but it's just not possible to read other stories about a character without them influencing your thoughts on the character in some way**

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_Prologue - The Reaper_

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Blood fell quietly to the ground, staining the grey streets crimson. No sunlight fell to make the splatters gleam, and the moon was nowhere to be found. In another sector of the city, neon lights might have done the job, but in the dank ruins that formed the Sector 4 slums, there were no lights. No noise. Hardly any life, and what little there was, was slowly bleeding away.

Literally.

A lone figure limped through the streets, making his way slowly to one of the many abandoned office buildings in the heart of the Sector. Had there been anyone present to witness his progress, they would have had trouble distinguishing his red hair from the blood that clotted it, the blood that streaked his skin and soaked into his clothing. That blood wasn't his, but the blood falling to the ground was, and it showed in his face. His cheeks appeared sunken, his skin pale and waxy, making the twin scars on his cheekbones stand out vividly. His eyes, surrounded by bruise-like shadows, were dull and tired. A lesser being would have given in to the light-headedness, the exhaustion, long before, but he refused to yield, dragging along a body that should have been dead hours ago. He was the Reaper.

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**I think my a/n at the top is longer than this "chapter" :P Reviews much appreciated anyway ;) **


	2. Ch 1 Dirt

**A little bit longer this time...**

**Warnings: **A mob of children is destroyed by a garbage can full of slop. Rude plays mute. Mommy isn't very nice.

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_Chapter One - Dirt_

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Laughter rang out through the streets, and every head turned to stare, wondering what caused the commotion. Most of them, once they saw the tell-tale flash of red hair, smiled slightly, shrugged, and continued along their way. It was just Jimmy's Gang again. A motley group of kids between the ages of eight and eleven, the "Gang" revolved around Jimmy, a boy whose was quite possibly the brightest flash of color in the lower city of Midgar, in personality and color. He and his friends had been terrorizing the streets of Sector 5 for years now, and nobody who lived in the area was at all surprised to see them engaged in a dirt war that day. The few people who were simply visitors to the area, however, were startled to hear laughter of any kind in that dim grey neighborhood. Most of them, however, followed the residents' example after a moment, and simply went fabout there business. A small handful of people, though, continued to watch the children play, memorizing faces even as they analyzed group dynamics. They didn't do it because they were supposed to; it was merely what they did. Waiting by the front of a run-down convenience store, the three men in dark suits had nothing better to do while they waited anyway; watching a mock gang fight in the street was far more entertaining than staring at the lifeless natives.

The battle was, certainly, unlike any gang war ever seen before in the slums. It had started off with a familiar scene: two "rival" groups faced off from each other, strung out in lines with a healthy area of no-man's land between them. Insults were traded. Rude gestures were exchanged. Then the first clump of dirt flew, and the situation rapidly degenerated into a shrieking mob of children, each intent on winning, even though they were all such close friends that nobody could remember whose side they were on, and the fight turned into an every-man-for-himself brawl. Most of them just ran around shoving dirt, garbage, and whatever else they could get their hands on down one-another's clothing. One boy, however, stood out from the rest. He had dragged two of his friends out of the mêlée, and he was plotting.

James Stanton, the Third, had no intention of fighting without _winning_, even if it was just for play. The three spectators watched in amusement as he led his team to the street corner by the local eatery, where several garbage cans were overflowing with what was best described as sludge. A few short minutes later, the trio was armed with a stockpile of sludge-balls, composed of leftover food, dirty, soaked napkins, and even a dirty diaper or two. The other kids never even saw it coming.

The skirmish ended quickly after that, with Jimmy and his two best friends standing virtually untouched; everyone else was covered in slop from the garbage cans. The diaper had wound up exploding on one unfortunate's head, and the remains hung down from his hair. Jimmy smirked, folded his arms across his chest, and stared them all down. "I'll accept your unconditional surrender now."

The defeated mob stared, and silence reigned over the street. The silent onlookers had to cover their mouths to keep from laughing at the looks of shock on the children's faces. The boy they had silently dubbed Diaper Head stepped forward. "You… How…" He sighed. "You _always_ win, Jimmy." He hung his head a moment, then sighed again. "Fine. You win. Again. We surrender. Even though I'm _pretty_ sure I was on your side originally."

Jimmy laughed. "Yeah, I think you were. Oh well, maybe next time." He winked, and the crowd began to disperse. Jimmy turned to his friends. Myrna, eight years old and the youngest of the mob, grinned and clapped her hands.

"That was fun, guys! I can't believe we get away with that kind of stuff every time! It's like they never catch on." Jimmy and Toby laughed along with her.

"Eventually they'll figure out what's going on, I guess." Toby wiped at some sweat trickling down his face, and made a face when he realized how dirty he was. "Not that we got away squeaky clean… I'm completely covered in dirt from the beginning of the fight." Jimmy and Myrna looked down at their hands and clothing, and nodded.

"Guess we'd better go clean up. It's getting late anyway." Jimmy glanced at the clock above the eatery door as he spoke. "You guys want to meet up tomorrow to hang out again? We haven't hung out by the playground in a while." The other two nodded. The old abandoned playground by the entrance to Wall Street was their unofficial hangout spot, where they had played together for years. They didn't play quite as much nowadays, choosing to sit on the swings or on top of the slide and talk instead, but they still went there whenever they needed a good spot to meet.

"We'll see you later then Jimmy, ok?" Snatching her older brother's hand before he could get away, Myrna began dragging Toby off towards their home. Smiling, Jimmy turned in the other direction, not paying attention to the three watchers. They gazed after him for a while before he rounded a corner and disappeared.

"He's a smart kid," observed one, brushing back a stray strand of black hair that had escaped his ponytail. "A bit loud, perhaps, and I think I'm half blind now from looking at that hair." The other two smirked, one adjusting the sunglasses on his nose before jerking his chin in another direction. His companions turned to look where he was indicating, and sighed in relief. Their informant had finally arrived. The red-headed boy and his battle were soon forgotten as the three Turks turned their mind to more important matters.

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Covered in dirt and sweat from the day's exertions, Jimmy was cautious when he pushed open the door to his house. It was Friday, so Mom would be home, and she hated when he tracked dirt into the house. In all honesty, she hated when he came into the house, period, but there was no sense in provoking her anger if he could help it. He kept this in mind as he crept quietly down the hall to his room, hoping that she was passed out from her alcohol or drugs already and hadn't heard him enter. It was a fair expectation; she spent most of her days at home comatose if she could help it. His caution, however, was in vain. She was waiting inside his room for him.

"Where have you been?" Her voice was cold, and her icy green eyes scowled down at him. He swallowed, and looked down at his shoes.

"I was hanging out with my friends. I always do, you know that." He had kept his voice soft, inoffensive, but she was not to be deterred.

"What _friends_? Who gave you permission to go outside? You worthless little piece of shit, how dare you leave me here alone _all day_, and then come here, inside _my house_, telling me you're out with your so-called friends, tracking your worthless filth in here?" Her voice gained in pitch and volume as she continued, until she was all but screaming at him. He flinched, expecting a slap, but she surprised him instead, returning to her original icy demeanor. "I'm through with this. I'm through with _you_. Come along, boy. You need a bath."

Confused by her sudden personality change, Jimmy couldn't help but wonder if she had been popping pills after all. It had been a long time since she had given him a bath… he was eleven, after all, and the last time she had seen fit to clean him herself was when he was five. She had rubbed his skin so raw with the washcloth that he had bled, and he had taken care to clean himself up before she could see him dirty, after that. Shrugging it off, he resigned himself to bloody skin again, and followed her to the bathroom.

She didn't bother turning on the hot water tap; cold would work just as well, and she didn't particularly care if he was comfortable during the bath. It wasn't going to last long anyway. "Get in."

Jimmyff quickly stripped and obeyed, flinching when his skin touched the icy water. He hoped this bath didn't last too long.

Initially, the bath was every bit as painful as Jimmy expected it to be. Mom scrubbed him viciously, drawing blood after only a few moments. Having long since learned not to flinch when he was hurt, Jimmy endured in silence, but something in his eyes must have given him away.

"What? Does it hurt? Good. You shouldn't have stayed out all day, and then tracked dirt in. It's too bad you won't have time to learn your lesson." Jimmy had tuned her out at the beginning of what he expected to turn into a long screaming rant, staring at the faucet instead of looking at her, and so he almost didn't catch the last bit of her statement, only noticing what she'd said when the washcloth suddenly vanished. Startled and a bit frightened by her words, he looked up, eyes wide, just in time to see her hands reaching for him, wrapping tightly around his neck. He had no time to recover from his shock and struggle before, with a cruel smile, she shoved him back and under the water, smacking his head sharply against the ceramic bottom of the tub. Spots flashed in his eyes, and he went limp, unable to even begin fighting back to save himself. He was going to drown.

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**No, Jimmy is not an OC. He'll be called Reno soon enough :) Review whore kplzthx**

**Special thanks to jennie300303, for pointing out my mistakes with his name :p (big part of the reason I was so happy when I could just call him Reno in the next chapter, lol)**


	3. Ch 2 His Place

**Warnings:** There's implied noncon and incest in this one, with a minor involved (plus some language). No real "lemon" for it though... I'd rather reserve those for fun sex, and this certainly isn't...

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_Chapter Two – His Place_

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_He was going to drown._

Numbed by the cold of the water, the pain in his skull, and the lack of oxygen, Jimmy couldn't struggle, could hardly even understand what was going on. His mother was drowning him in the bathtub. _I'm drowning_ drifted slowly through his mind, followed closely by _I'm dying._ It felt almost like falling asleep, only more surreal. Detached. He could no longer focus on his mothers shimmering form above the water. All he saw was the water, tinged pink with his blood, as his vision darkened, and slowly faded to grey, and then black. He was slack, relaxed. It was dark now. Just like sleep. The throbbing in his head, the pain from the raw skin elsewhere on his body, had faded. It was okay, easy in fact, to let himself go. He couldn't do anything about it anyway.

He was pulled violently from the water, and the hands disappeared from his throat. Sucking in breath, sensation returned in a rush, starting with pins and needles in his extremities and blasting into a searing pain in the back of his head, his throat, behind his eyes. He still couldn't see, but his hearing returned, if it had ever disappeared at all. Everything was muted underwater anyway. Now, however, all he could hear was screaming. It took him a long moment to realize that it wasn't him screaming, that he was still as silent as he had been when his mother had rubbed his skin raw. A man was screaming, then a woman.

_Dad? Mom?_ He assumed so. It sounded like one of their typical fights, except this time he couldn't make out the words, only noise. His vision was returning in spots, but he was still muddled, confused, and he stared blankly into the bloody water. Silence, then a crash from somewhere else in the house. Silence again. Jimmy waited, still in the bathtub, still only dimly aware of his surroundings.

A pair of hands reached in and lifted him out of the tub. Finally fully conscious and aware again, Jimmy struggled for a moment, before he realized that it was his father. He quieted down quickly, and allowed himself to be carried to his bedroom. Despite almost being drowned a few minutes ago, he still feared his father far more than his mom. He was stronger, and he didn't wait to get drunk before he got violent.

Jimmy landed with a muted thump on his bed, trying to keep himself from shivering. His dad walked out briefly and returned with a towel, which he used to begin drying Jimmy off. Jimmy immediately felt uncomfortable, and protested. "I can do it myself, you don't have to…" The immediate response was a sharp slap to the mouth, silencing him immediately.

"You'll sit there and shut the hell up if you know what's good for you. Stop shivering." Jimmy sat and endured in silence, again trying in vain to stop shivering, and doing his best to ignore the wandering hands on his body. Quiet moments with his father were never a good thing. It was okay when he was angry… Jimmy could expect to be kicked around (sometimes literally), receive a lecture on learning his place in life, and then to be left alone. When his father got quiet, however, he let his hands wander, and his eyes. Jimmy was always afraid of the look in those eyes.

He trembled now out of fear, rather than cold. The room had grown all too warm for his liking. The towel had disappeared shortly after drying his face and upper body, his groin and thighs abandoned and still dripping, and coarse fingers now traced paths along his chest, pausing to slowly circle a pair of taut nipples. Jimmy flushed in dread, and shame. On the upper plate, he imagined that kids probably didn't find out about sex until later in life; they were spoiled up there, pampered. Their parents didn't beat them, try to drown them, touch them…

Here in the slums below the plate, however, kids learned quickly. Not everybody had abusive parents, but everyone knew somebody who did. Most kids were as sexually active as any adult by the time they turned fourteen. Many were parents not long after. It made sense, really… With hardly any medical care, all of the filth that clogged the air, no natural light… lifespans were shorter below the plate. In the grand tradition of the human race, the people of the slums had simply adapted to meet that condition. They grew up fast. Jimmy knew exactly what was about to happen to him. A large hand covered his mouth, and he felt himself shoved backwards until he was lying flat on his back. "Don't scream." As always, Jimmy obeyed. It wasn't his place to disobey his father.

He cried, quietly, in pain and humiliation. He was alone now, or he wouldn't have dared even the silent tears. Dad had left the room when he finished, presumably to go take a shower, leaving Jimmy a bloody and sticky mass of pain. Things had never gone this far before, but then again, his mom had always been around before. Jimmy hadn't heard any sound of her since his head was pulled out from under the water. _Had it really only been a half hour ago?_ Jimmy didn't bother trying to guess where she was, what had happened to her. All he knew was that he was completely alone now.

Footsteps sounded in the hall outside his door right as his quiet tears turned into hiccupping sobs. _Talk about bad timing…_ His mind was scattered, unable to focus on anything particularly serious, as his father paused in the doorway to look at him, then walked back out. It wasn't long before he returned, stepping all the way inside the room. He had a clean towel and a knife in his hand.

Jimmy recognized that knife. It was all black, even the steel. The blade was about twelve inches long, and curved wickedly, designed for killing. He'd never been cut by that blade, but he'd been threatened with it plenty of times, and the sight of it made him immediately try to stop his crying. He knew that his father hated when he cried.

"Stop Crying." Surprise, surprise. His dad set the knife on the bedside stand, and wiped him down with the towel cleaning him off efficiently and coldly. There were no wandering hands this time. His brusque manner calmed Jimmy down more than anything else, and by the time he was cleaned, his tears had disappeared, leaving behind only the slight hitching of breaths that always appeared after a hard crying session. His earlier trembling returned full force, however, when his father picked the knife back up, ordering him to lay back down.

"I've told you before not to cry. You're obviously too damned stupid to learn the lesson, so now I'm going to make sure you learn it and never forget it . Keep your fucking mouth shut, and I'd better not see one fucking tear, or you'll regret it." In hindsight, Jimmy never could figure out what his dad could have done to make him regret crying that would be worse than what had already happened, but at the time, he was too afraid, too cowed and submissive, to question. It took all of the strength and focus he could muster not to scream when the cold steel carved into the flesh below his eye. He had to blink rapidly to keep from crying when the tip of the blade hit his cheekbone and carved deep, and it was all he could do not to pass out when the blade moved over to inflict equal pain under his other eye. James Stanton, the Third, however, always obeyed his father. Even when it hurt.

For several days, Jimmy lay in bed, shaking from pain and fever. Almost being drowned had shocked him. The rape had hurt him. The cutting was almost enough to kill him. His head throbbed constantly, dully where he had hit his head in the tub, and arcing around to culminate in a searing burn where the knife had cut into his face. Late the first night, when he was finally able to drift into an uneasy sleep, his dad came and sat on the edge of his bed, brushing his unruly hair back from his face and stroking his head soothingly until he fell asleep. The last thing Jimmy registered before his eyes closed was his father's voice, assuring him that the pain would be gone soon, and everything would be ok. He came every night after that, soothing him to sleep with a parental protectiveness that he had rarely ever displayed. During the days, he brought Jimmy warm broth to drink, and cool water, carrying him to the bathroom when he needed to relieve himself. His behavior was kind, nurturing… normal. After a couple days of it, Jimmy prayed for his fever to recede enough so that he could escape the house, before his dad drove him crazy.

Six days after the incident, he left the house, carrying an old backpack filled with a change of clothes, a bottle of water, and an apple. He had money stashed in various places on his body, and the knife rested safely in his pocket. He didn't plan on ever returning.

Tired eyes gazed down the street, lingering on the corner café. Was it really only a week ago that he had led his "gang" in a dirt war on that same street? He felt like it had been years. Children's voices sounded from down the street, and he looked up to see Toby, Myrna, and a few others from the gang round the corner and start heading his direction. He almost turned and left, but at the last minute, Toby glanced up and spotting him, stopping the group. Jimmy was supposed to meet them at the playground several days ago.

"Jimmy!" Myrna caught sight of him and started to run towards him, but Toby stopped her. Jimmy has vicious, red-looking scars on his face, and his eyes were different. Older, somehow. Sad. He wasn't returning to the group, and Toby could tell. Jimmy nodded quietly towards him, a farewell, and turned away. He was headed towards a different kind of gang now.

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_"That does it for today then. I want that report on my desk no later than five p.m. tonight."_

"Yes, sir… Oh, sir?"

"What is it?"

"You remember that kid that everyone talks about whenever they go down into Sector 5? The one with the hair? He was in that dirt war you guys watched last week?"

"Yes?"

"Well, looks like he turned up again. Cissnei's down there, and says he headed for Sector 4. Ran into his old crowd, but they didn't talk. Some kind of scars on his face, too."

"Sector 4? I wonder… pass the word around, I'd like for everyone to keep an eye out, and inform me if he's spotted running with any of the gangs down there."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

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He found what he was looking for a couple hours later, in a dirty side alley of Sector 4. Three teens lounged against the concrete wall of an abandoned warehouse, smoking and chatting about a fight last night. He approached, and they stopped talking to glare at him. "What the fuck do you want, kid?"

"What, you don't remember me, Mel?" Jimmy grinned crookedly, and the leader of the group, Mel, took a closer look.

"Jimmy?" Jimmy grinned. "Hey! Whoa, it's been forever since I've seen you. It's been what, five years? You were hauling your brother off to an orphanage or some shit, weren't you?" Mel laughed, remembering. "That was some of the weirdest shit I've ever seen, kid. What the fuck happened to your _face_?"

Jimmy shrugged. "None of your business. You remember that day then?" He referred to the incident with his brother.

Mel nodded. "Sure. Who wouldn't? That baby was damn near as big as you were. It was fuckin' hilarious to watch." That earned him a roll of the eyes.

"Whatever. You keep your promises, right Mel?"

Mel eyed him warily. "Ah, shit. _You're fuckin' crazy kid. You ever wanna come join my gang, you're more than welcome. We could use crazy little bastards like you._ That the promise you're talking about?" Jimmy smirked and nodded. Mel sighed. "Figures. Hope you're still crazy then. This is Sonny, and Maura," he said, indicating the boy and girl next to him. "Guys, this is… I'm not fucking calling you _Jimmy_, that's a kid's name." He tapped his lips with a forefinger. "Let's see. You've got that fuckin' ridiculous bright hair, all flashy and shit. You were a real cocky little bastard back then, too…" He snapped his fingers. "Reno."

Reno stared. "You're naming me after a city."

"Yep. It's the biggest little city in the world!"

"Known for gambling and hookers."

"Just think! Someday, maybe you'll actually grow up, and _you_ can be known for your hookers!" Reno sighed again, and Mel took that as acceptance. "Great! Now that that's settled, let's get you back to the hangout, and introduce you to the rest of the gang." He chatted a bit about rules on the way. "…that way, everyone contributes, but you can still, you know, have your own shit. Makes things a hell of a lot easier. People start bitching and getting mad when you take everything they earn, see? Figure you're in it for your own profit and don't give a shit about them. Anyway, we'll have to figure out what your good at. Ever killed anyone?" Reno decided that hitting a kid in the head with a dirty diaper didn't count, and shook his head. "Ever blown anything up?" Another shake of the head. "Robbed anyone?" Negative. "Well… shit. Uh… don't worry I guess, everyone has to start somewhere, right? Maybe we'll teach you how to do it all! We'll start this week with teaching you how to pickpocket, so you can start earning money right off the bat. Sound good?" Pretty much anything sounded good after the past week at his house. Reno grinned.

"Sounds good." His smile was infectious, and Mel, Sonny, and Maura grinned back.

Pickpocketing lessons started the very next day. Reno was a natural.

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**A/N:**

I picked the name Myrna for Reno's friend without ever reaching that part of the game in FFVII (I never got past the Chocobo/Midgar Zolom area, for one reason or another),so I didn't have any idea that Myrna was a name in the game. So, Reno's Myrna bears no relation to Barret's Myrna.

I always figured a kid like Reno, who was used to being abused and spent most of his time running around on the streets anyway, would recover from (or hide) trauma a lot better than your average kid.

I like Tseng.

Thank God, I can finally start calling him Reno, without having to remember to type Jimmy instead :P

Speaking of, there is a reason for his name change, it just comes later in the story. His brother will be explained later on too.

**Reviews make me happy :D**


	4. Ch 3 Meet

**Warnings:** Some violence and alittle language. Lots of dust everywhere :p

**EDIT:** Sorry about re-uploading this 3 times X(. I didn't realize that I could just replace the old file with the most up-to-date one, and was deleting and re-uploading instead -rolls eyes- That said, most of the spelling and grammar mistakes, and missing spaces, _should_ be fixed, but if you notice anything, please let me know.

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_Chapter Three - The Meet_

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Dust hung in the empty streets of Sector 4, kicked up by past travellers and seemingly abandoned to fall forever through the still, dead air. No children's voices rang down the alleyways, no people traversed the run-down avenues on their way home from work. If there had been any sunlight to fall on the dimly lit building complexes, it would have long since faded to twilight. As it was, a dull gloom pervaded the area, as surreal and unchanging as the dust. Few eyes were around to see the small group of people, only nine all-told, slinking in between the buildings. Those silent watchers only saw them because they knew they would be there, and were waiting.

"So, have you guys heard the rumors?" A stocky teenager with prematurely grey hair rolled his shoulders, cracking joints and loosening muscles as they walked. Most of the rest of the group were doing similar stretching exercises, preparing for the fight ahead. Maura, the only girl in the group, paused in checking the action of her pistol to glance over at him.

"You talking about the Reaper?" Now everyone was looking at them, immediately curious at the mention of the Reaper.

Sonny nodded. "Yeah. I heard he's been sending out invites."

Someone else piped up. "I heard he's only faking it. He found a mako cache and is planning to live forever; he's just sending out invites so he can hunt them all down for sport."

Reno barked a laugh, causing everyone to turn and stare at him. Maura and Sonny grinned, expecting something ridiculous to come spouting out of his mouth. He didn't disappoint. "_I_ heard he's ten feet tall, has the head of a coerl, and eats raw babies for breakfast. Too bad it's his head and not his cock, he could make his _own_ babies to eat every _day_, and never have to go shopping." Maura started laughing so hard she had to stop walking, and Sonny grinned and patted Reno on the back.

"Guess you were right all along, huh Mel? He really _is_ a crazy little bastard."

Mel, stalking along on the fringes of the group, turned to grin back at them. "Told you all so…" Reno smirked, proudly, and Mel continued. "Anyway, enough chit chat. Who gives a fuck if the Reaper's decided to eat babies for the rest of his life instead of run his gang? Ain't none of us got an invite, and we've got other shit to worry about." The others chuckled again at the mention of eating babies, and continued getting ready as they walked, making final checks of their weapons, as Maura was doing.

"We're just about there," Reno informed them. Everyone else exchanged amused looks. Reno was excited… as usual. It hadn't taken Mel long to determine that the smart-ass redhead was as good at stealing as he was at making snarky comments. It hadn't taken _anyone_ long to discover that he excelled at laying traps, evading traps, and destroying things. It had, however, taken them a little longer to discover that what he really excelled at was destroying _people_. The Gang Wars had been in a state of an uneasy cease fire when he joined Mel's gang three years ago, and Mel preferred to avoid using his gang for hit jobs whenever he could get by doing other jobs, so it was seven months before Reno got his first chance at a true gang fight. He had been twelve at the time. Mel worried that he was too young, that he either wouldn't be able to actually hurt someone else, or that the resulting trauma would destroy his mind, but he was wrong. Reno loved it. Now, two and a half years after his first kill, he was eager to see blood again. As always in the slums, the unceasing Gang Wars obliged him.

Noone could ever really explain _why_ the gangs fought each other. Most of them ran in different territories, conducted different business. They rarely ever actually stepped on each others' toes, and the victors of the Wars never took over the beaten gang's territory. There was no true purpose to the Wars, other than an outlet for violence, and a never-ending fight for dominance and bragging rights. They were violent and bloody affairs that few on the losing sides survived. Reno's side was never the losing side.

Confident and bouyed by Reno's enthusiasm, the gang continued their way towards the Meet, an old, empty lot, boxed in by empty buildings on all four sides. Only narrow alleys led to and from the area, which had been used by Mel's gang as a Meet for longer than Mel had even been alive. Most gangs had their own special area where they held Meets, which was simply a clean way of saying bloodbath. This particular battle had been provoked by a rival gang, led by a nineteen-year-old named Regin, and so Mel got to choose the place of the Meet, as per the Code. It only took the gang a few more minutes to snake their way through the alleys and arrive at the square, where they expected Regin's gang to be waiting, strutting around in some ridiculous display of dominance.

The Meet was quiet, empty. No motley group of teens waiting in the half-light. No insults, no tough posturing. Nobody had come. Mel's gang stared around themselves, silently. It was unheard of for a battling gang to miss a Meet. Feet shuffled uncertainly, and eyes lowered to the ground. Nobody was sure of what to do now. Reno was the only one who continued looking around, suspicious. '_**Nobody**__ misses a Meet…_' He turned to Mel. "We need to get the fuck _out_ of here. They didn't _miss_ it, they _rigged_ it." Mel lifted an eyebrow, questioningly, and Reno turned away and pointed towards a building on the far side of the empty square. A thin wire led out of a window, running to an adjacent building. The dust on the window was smudged. Someone had disturbed it, and recently. "_Bomb_, Mel."

It took only a second for that bit of information to process through everyone's minds before they took off, running back in the direction they had come. They fled the scene not a moment too soon; the shockwave from the blast threw them all to the ground, shattering the glass in all of the surrounding buildings. A heavy cloud of dust billowed up, laced with fragments of shrapnel and stone, rushing quickly through the dead alleyways. The silence after the blast was so complete that Reno was afraid he'd lost his hearing. He had always thought the phrase "deafening silence" was just an expression, but now he knew better. There wasn't even any ringing in his ears.

The group picked themselves up, shaken. The sound of rubble falling off of their clothing to the ground was too loud, making most of them jump. The sound of someone _else_ moving through the rubble made them curse, panick, and pull weapons, barely in time to ward off the ambush by Regin's gang. The ensuing melee was brutal. Reno's world narrowed to a sepia-toned picture of flashing knives, bright spatters of blood, bulging eyes. He tuned out the noise around him, leaving himself in a soundless vacuum of violence and death. He fought for minutes. He fought for _days_. When it was over, he had no idea how much time had passed. Sound returned slowly, reminding him of that long-ago day with his mother, in the bathtub. The rest of Mel's gang stood around, staring at the carnage they had wrought. Nobody spoke; nobody knew what to _say_. There were no written rules to the Wars, but _everyone_ followed the unwritten Code. To initiate such an attack on a rival was unheard of. Unspeakable. Regin had broken the Code, and paid for it in the lives of his gang.

Sonny was the first to finally speak. "They shouldn't have done that." Reno and the others nodded. Mel simply stared, and Sonny continued. "We need to teach them a lesson. We need to teach _everyone_ a lesson." Everyone looked to Mel, expectantly. He shook his head, dazed.

"I…" He trailed off, falling silent again. Reno's eyes narrowed. Two and a half years ago, Mel had worried that Reno's first gang fight would break him. Now, Reno suspected that Mel'slatest had broken _him_. He turned away, silently, and twirled his blade in his hand, approaching the body nearest him. Bending over, he casually cut around the boy's face, peeling the skin away and grinding it into the ground nearby with the heel of his boot. He walked from person to person, doing the same, and pulling the bodies into a roughly circular pile at the center of the blasted square, before he got to Regin. Regin, he didn't mutilate. Instead, he cleaned his blade off on Regin's shirt, and hefted the older teen's body over to the center of the pile, laying him on top of his gang, untouched. The message was clear. Regin broke the Code, his gang paid. Leaving him untouched was an insult.

Sonny watched in approval, while Mel looked on in horror. Mutilating the corpse of a fallen enemy was as against the Code as the bombing was. Reno gazed back at him, steadily, and shrugged. "Motherfuckers should have _known_ better."

Mel dropped his gaze. "I can't do this any more." Reno and Sonny were unsurprised, but the rest of the gang looked at Mel in shock. He shook his head, not looking up at any of them. "I'm sorry."

Reno walked over, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You're twenty-one years old, Mel. You've been doing this since you were twelve, and now it's suddenly changed,probably permanently. It's okay. You've been a brother to all of us, a father almost. Don't be sorry, get out while you still can and _live_ a little. You always wanted to open up your own bar or whatever anyway, have a family and shit, well, you can't do that if you spend the rest of your miserable little life hanging around with us street rats." He grinned, and Mel gave a little laugh.

"I'm as much a street rat as you, Reno."

"Yeah, but with _class_! I'm only known for my hookers, after all." This drew a real laugh out of Mel, who smacked Reno lightly on the back of the head.

"You haven't grown up _that_ much, kid." Mel smirked at him, and the rest of the gang relaxed. Mel was retiring, and was going to be happy about it. Reno would take over, and be just fine as a leader. Things would be ok. Reno smiled, withdrew his hand from Mel's shoulder, and stretched lazily.

"Well, I will. It's been fun guys. Have fun, Sonny." The gang was quickly in turmoil again.

"You're _leaving_?!" Maura latched on to his arm immediately. "_Why_? Where are you going? Why aren't you staying with us?" He wriggled a little bit, trying to break free of her leech-like hold on him.

"Sheesh, Maura, I think I'm a little young for you, sweetheart, and I don't like girls anyway. I'm not going to go off and get myself killed or something, relax!" She let him go, reluctantly, and Sonny laughed. Reno smirked at him. "Besides, Sonny's better at the whole 'Dad' bit anyway. He even buys you guys ice cream." Sonny rolled his eyes, and the rest of them chuckled, eased by Reno's easy-going attitude. Reno gave Maura a small hug, and clapped Mel and Sonny on the back. "It's been great guys."

"What _will_ you do now?" Sonny questioned. Reno shrugged.

"I dunno yet. Find something interesting to do." He winked at Maura. "Something that probably _will_ get me killed, knowing me. I'll be around still though, I guess,if you ever need me for anything."

Sonny nodded. "You're part of the family, Reno. You're welcome back any time, if you ever need help or a place to stay."

Mel spoke up as well. "You know I've been eying that place over in Sector 5, for the bar. It's finally for sale, at a price I can afford, so it should be open soon. You're welcome there too. You _all_ are."

"_Sweet_, we can all meet up for free booze on Fridays now!" Reno pumped a fist in the air, and everyone laughed. With the tension finally broken, everyone passed around handshakes, well-wishes, and promises to meet up again soon, before the gang departed, leaving Reno alone in the center of the square. Rolling his shoulders, he turned and walked into the shadow of one of the buildings. He didn't leave, however. He knew when he was being watched, and was determined to find out who it was. He didn't have long to wait.

There was movement in a building on the other side of the square, away from where Regin's gang had lain in ambush. Reno couldn't name the two men he saw, but he recognized them easily. Turks. They had been more or less permanent figures of his childhood; everyone in the slums recognized the dark suits when they saw them, and few had the nerve to get in their way. Reno had begun to notice them more and more after he joined Mel's gang, and it hadn't taken him long to determine that they were actually _watching_ him, studying him. Why they had chosen him specifically, he didn't know; he had never felt inclined to chase them down and ask. These two, whom he had nicknamed Dot-Head and Sunglass-Guy, were two of the ones he most commonly spotted watching him, and by the way other Turks interacted with them, he suspected they were high up in whatever hierarchy the Turks followed.

Sunglass-Guy was facing his direction, and Reno briefly wondered if the mirrored shades had some kind of crazy infrared capability that allowed him to see exactly where Reno was hiding, but his attention quickly turned to Dot-Head, who was instead looking over at a building next to them. Another figure moved in the shadows there, and it only took Reno a second's glimpse to know that the man in the shadows was _not_ a Turk, which was something new. The man had eyes as dark as his hair, which Reno decided was probably a really dark brown, and he was dressed in street clothes. They were beat-up enough to tell Reno that the man was from the slums, but well-taken care of and clean-looking, which told him that this man was probably the leader of a well-off crime ring of some kind. That was the only kind of person in this town that would spend their time watching a Gang War, after all.

Dot-Head and Shadow-Man stared at each-other across the narrow alley. Reno watched for a moment, until Sunglass-Guy turned towards Shadow-Man as well, before he crept quietly and quickly away from the empty window he had been watching from, and snuck away into the dim alley behing the building. He didn't particularly care who won the staring contest; the personal attention from the Turks was starting to make him nervous, and he didn't like the fact that a new player had now entered into the spying game. The sooner he left them behind, the better.

Unbeknownst to him, the staring match ended almost immediately after he left, with the Turks withdrawing silently back into their building. They knew who the stranger was, even if Reno didn't, and they were too curious to see where his interest in Reno would lead to stake their claim to the teen now. As soon as they backed down from the stand-off, the stranger left, hurrying to cut Reno off before he disappeared into the maze that separated Sector 4 from Sector 5. If Reno made it there first, he would disappear, and the stranger didn't know where he lived to hunt him down at home. Time was running too short to wait for the redhead to reappear in the streets.

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**A/N:** Ooh, drama, drama. I couldn't resist the Dot-Head and Sunglass-Guy jabs, hehe. The Turks make me smile :)

The mysterious Shadow-Man will be revealed at the start of the next chapter, although you might be able to take a guess at who he is based on the rest of this chapter.

No, Reno doesn't really have much of a conscience. It's how he was raised, and it's a pretty dog-eat-dog world down there. He's not a sadist (well, not much, anyway...), he just does what he has to do, that's all.

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Thanks to **Etrixan, jennie300303, ringbearingreasergal, YOURMOMONTOAST, and TheOptimisticPessamist** for your reviews, and to everyone else who alerted the story :) Special thanks to jenny for pointing out my little naming error in the last chapter ;)


	5. Ch 4 The Bloodletting, Pt 1

**Warnings:** Language as usual. Not much else, except for some horrible flirting and boring speech. Sorry :p

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_Chapter 4 – The Bloodletting, Part 1_

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"You're a difficult person to track down, you know." Reno spun around, knife in hand before he even realized what he was doing. Across the street from him, the dark-haired man from the square smiled at him. The smile didn't quite reach his eyes, and Reno didn't put the blade away. "Now, now, no need to be so edgy. I'm not here to start trouble; I just want to… talk."

"Well, you're doing a great job, keep up the good work." Reno turned away, muscles tense in expectation of an attack, and continued in the direction he had been traveling. Shadow-Man laughed, and Reno stopped again, well aware that the stranger was following, and having no desire to lead him to his home. "What?"

"My name is Tanner." Reno only stared, blankly. '_Does he expect that to mean something to me?_' Tanner chuckled. "Ah, I suppose you wouldn't recognize that name, the only people outside of my…family…who would still recognize it are the Turks." Reno shifted uneasily, completely silent for once. He didn't like being cornered, and he was worn out from the fight earlier. He didn't want to have to run to lose the man, and he didn't want to have to kill him. Anyone on the streets knew it was a bad idea to leave bodies anywhere near where you were nesting – it drew unwanted attention, and plenty of people were curious about where exactly Reno lived. He didn't need people snooping around. "I can see you're uncomfortable," Reno's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps we could move to a more neutral area?"

"_Perhaps_ you could just tell me what the fuck you _want_, and then you can get the hell out of my territory and leave me the fuck _alone_." Reno wasn't one for being polite when he felt threatened, and Tanner's strangely formal speech was grating on his nerves.

Tanner laughed. "My apologies, I'll get to the point then. I would like to invite you to a…gathering, of sorts. A test of your abilities." Reno's interest was finally piqued.

"What sort of test?"

Tanner grinned, and Reno noticed once more that it didn't reach his eyes. Cold. "A bloody one." He pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Reno, then turned and walked away. "Don't be late…I don't invite many people personally."

Reno stared after him for several long moments before he looked down at the envelope in his hands. He knew what it meant even before he flipped it over to reveal the large **R** stamped on the front. An invite from the Reaper.

* * *

He stayed up late that night, despite how tired he was before. Everyone in the slums knew about the Reaper from the time they could walk. Parents used him as a mythical figure to frighten their children into behaving. Others barely whispered his name, as though speaking it aloud would bring his wrath down upon them. He was the most feared of all the crime lords and gang leaders below the plate, even more infamous than the notorious Don Corneo. His gang, known around Midgar as the Lich, was said to number in the hundreds, and had existed for centuries, before the Upper Plate had even been built. The Reaper himself was rumored to be immortal, although most of the slum rats that ran in the gangs around town knew better. The Reaper was a _tradition_, passed down from person to person as the old Reaper retired.

The change of command ceremony was known as the Bloodletting. Not much was actually known about it, except that the Reaper sent out invites to the people he thought might be worthy of succeeding him, and only one usually survived the event. Most stories told of invitations being left on doorsteps, on pillows. Reno had never heard of anybody being contacted by the Reaper personally to receive their invite, and the fact that he had been singled out made him wonder. He suspected that the Reaper didn't simply leave his chosen group of people to tear at each other; it made more sense for him to have a favorite. Turning the rest against that person would force him to prove beyond all doubt that he was ready to lead the Lich, since he would have to defeat the rest of the group just to survive. Being singled out before the Bloodletting even began didn't bode well for what might happen later on. Reno preferred to survive by letting _others_ tear at each others' throats; he didn't want to be the one in the middle of the fray.

All of that aside, he knew he would be accepting the invite, and that he would be at the Reaper's Meet the following day. Running with Mel's gang had been fun for a while, but eventually it became boring, monotonous. Nothing ever changed, and as much as he didn't like fighting with the pack, he was tired of not leading it. Only his boredom with what the gang did every day had prevented him from taking charge when Mel left; the opportunity to take command of the most powerful gang in the slums excited him, and he spent the rest of the night choosing his weapons, and choosing which clothing would allow him the best protection from the cold, while at the same time affording him the widest range of movement and agility. He would sleep during the day, since the Bloodletting didn't begin until 1800, but for now, he would make sure he was prepared. He didn't intend to lose.

* * *

Reno made his way quietly through the abandoned paths of Sector 4. To all outward appearances, he was simply going about a normal day in the slums. He wore his traditional black boots, scavenged from a Shin-Ra surplus store; tattered black cargo pants, stolen from the same store a couple years ago; an old black wife beater; and his favorite jacket, made of well-worn leather. Black, of course. It hid blood the best, after all. Had anyone had the opportunity to look beneath the clothing, or into his pockets, however, they would have realized that today was a bit different from his usual. His knife was normally the only weapon he carried on him; it was the only one he ever needed. Now, however, he had a small handgun, hidden in a holster beneath the waistband of his pants. He had bought the HK P30 a year ago, mainly just to say he had one, but now he was glad to have practiced so much with it. He didn't expect to need more than the 15 rounds that fit in the magazine, but he had a few extra mags in his pockets anyway, just in case. Completing his oddly-assorted arsenal were four fine ropes, usually used by thieves to scale walls. His lines, however, had nooses on one end instead of grappling hooks. There was no harm in being prepared, right?

He kept his head down as he passed through his old gang's territory. They'd be out celebrating their victory all day, and probably defending their decision ('_My decision…_') to skin the faces off of Regis' gang, and he didn't want to have to stop and explain to them where he was going, even if there _wasn't_ any way for them to tell that he wasn't just going out for a drink or something similar. As it was, he was spotted anyway.

Sonny stepped out of the old, run-down bar that the gang had been drinking it, letting the door of what had once been a warehouse swing shut behind him. He didn't expect to see Reno walking past on the other side of the street, and called out to him before he could stop himself, realizing that with how Reno was walking head-down, he probably didn't want to be disturbed. Reno sighed a little, and walked over. Sonny could tell by the way he stood, muscles all coiled tight but appearing totally relaxed, that he was headed out to shed blood.

"_That_ was fast… out to kick someone's ass already?" Reno smirked.

"Something like that. Goin' to a party." Sonny looked him over carefully.

"A party, huh… I don't suppose this _party_ requires any kind of invitation to get into, does it?" Reno eyed him, not answering, and Sonny nodded. "More rumors going around about all that today. _Rumor has it_ that anyone who doesn't want to get bloody tonight would do well to stay indoors or out of the Sector."

Reno grinned, and Sonny couldn't help but compare him to a shark, or a bloodthirsty wolf. "You know _me_, I'm always looking to get a little bloody." Sonny smiled, and clapped him on the back.

"I'd say 'good luck', but you'd just mock me for it anyway. So, have fun, and we'd better see you around when Mel opens his bar up in a couple months." Reno laughed, flashed a peace sign, and continued on his way. Sonny watched him go, then sighed and went back into the bar. The rest of the gang would want to hear about this, and he hated to be worrying about Reno alone.

* * *

He arrived at the Meet a half hour before the Bloodletting was scheduled to begin. He wasn't surprised to see a bunch of people already there. Most of them were obviously not there to partake in the event, and he guessed that they were part of the Lich, only there to see who the candidates were for their boss' position. A few stood apart from the crowd, talking quietly to each other, and their tense stances told him that they were fellow candidates, but were too nervous to be serious contenders. Unless this truly was a last-man-standing deal, they would probably survive the night without challenging anybody, and would be happy to return to their usual spots in the Lich hierarchy.

The bystander who surprised Reno the most of everyone there had soft copper curls, and came up only waist-high on him. The little girl giggled, tugging on the edge of his jacket until he looked down at her. "Your hair is a funny color." He smirked, noting that next to himself, she had the brightest hair there.

"You're not one to talk, kiddo." He took a closer look at her, concerned. It was cold out, bitter enough that he was almost shivering in his light jacket, and she wasn't even wearing a sweater. He could see the goosebumps raised along her little arms. "Hey, what are you doing out here, anyway? Shouldn't you be home with your mom or something, where it's warm?"

She giggled again, making him smile. "Everyone is out here!" He wasn't sure what that had to do with her mother, or being warm, but judging by her seemingly uncaring attitude towards either, she wasn't going home any time soon. He sighed, glad that his weapons were all stored in his pants pockets, and shrugged out of his jacket, draping it over her.

"You're going to freeze, you nutcase…" She smiled, showing all of her teeth, and tucked her arms into his jacket sleeves, making herself right at home without so much as a 'thank you'. He rolled his eyes. "You're welcome, too." She giggled again ('_Damn, that's going to get annoying fast… lucky the kid is cute_') and stuck her hands in the jacket pockets.

"Look! I found money!" She pulled a twenty gil note out of one of the pockets, holding it up proudly to show him. He stared, unamused.

"_That_ is _my_ money."

"Nuh-uh! I found it! Finders-keepers!" He groaned, and rubbed his eyes. '_What a waste of 20 bucks…_' She stuffed the note back into 'her' pocket, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Alyse!"

He shook her hand, amused at how much his dwarfed hers. "Reno."

"You have a funny name _and_ funny hair!" Laughing, she danced away, disappearing into the crowd of people. Reno watched his jacket run away from him, and shivered. '_Damn._'

A soft voice spoke up behind him. "That was just _adorable_." He set his jaw, aggravated, and turned around slowly. His jacket, his money, gone, and now some girly-sounding asshole was taunting him. A pair of honey-colored eyes met his, dancing with laughter. "Oh, it's okay. I was only partly making fun of you, that really _was_ sweet." The speaker smiled, and Reno melted. He always was a sucker for soft-spoken blondes, and the creature in front of him was gorgeous. Straw-colored hair framed his heart-shaped face, and his tawny eyes and dark lashes offset his creamy skin perfectly. Reno couldn't have stayed angry at him if he tried.

"Well, what can I say… I like freezing my ass of and throwing away money." '_Smooth, real smooth… jackass…_' He berated himself silently, but his counterpart laughed, charmed, and extended a hand. Reno noticed that his fingers were slender and delicate, his nails shaped and clean.

"My name is Sim."

"Reno." Sim smiled at that, and Reno laughed a little at himself. Sim had been standing right behind him during his conversation with Alyse; he already knew Reno's name. "So…just Sim?"

Sim chuckled a little. "Simón, actually. My parents thought it was '_mysterious and romantic_', but it mostly just gets laughs around a place like this." He waved a hand, indicating the city in general, but Reno was quick to protest.

"_I _don't think it's bad!" Sim laughed, appreciating the effort, and the two of them moved over to lean against the wall of the building behind them, chatting and, on Reno's part at least, flirting outrageously until 1800 rolled around.

A clock tower in some distant part of the city sounded, and all conversation ceased. Reno counted the people around him that he suspected to be contestants in the Bloodletting, and came up with 13, including himself. '_Someone's superstitious…_' Tanner was nowhere to be seen, and Reno wondered what kind of Grand Entrance the man had planned. He didn't have long to wait, and the entrance wasn't as 'grand' as Reno had been expecting, although it did shock him a bit. Tanner walked into the area as the last bell tolled the hour, a small pink jacket slung over one arm. His other hand was gripped by a brightly-smiling coppertop, practically drowning in the black leather jacket that she wore. "Son of a _bitch_," Reno muttered. Sim smiled next to him, and leaned over to whisper in his ear.

"Oh, I forgot to mention… Alyse is Tanner's adopted daughter." As irritated as he was by the news, and by the fact that the girl didn't show any signs of giving up his jacket, Reno was all too distracted by Sim's warm breath on his ear, and consequently wasn't paying any attention when Tanner stepped into the middle of the gathering, and called the invitees to him. Sim chuckled lightly, and gave him a gentle push. All eyes were on him as he moved to the center of the group. Not one to let himself be embarrassed, Reno took his time in strolling over, chin up and smirk firmly planted on his face. A wry smile tugged at Tanner's lips, and he turned to face the onlookers, as Reno positioned himself on the outskirts of the group of contestants.

One of them sneered over at Reno and whispered, "Aren't you cold?" Reno turned a cold smile on him, staring until the other man backed down, looking at the ground.

"No." The other glanced up quickly, surprised, but Tanner began to speak before he could say anything more.

At first, Reno tuned him out. Tanner talked for a while about the history of the Lich, the first Reaper, blah, blah, blah. Reno didn't really give a shit about people who had run the streets before the Upper Plate, before the slums, before the city was even a city, let alone the sprawling monstrosity that it was today. He listened, however, when Tanner began to speak about the Bloodletting itself. "It is a tradition, begun by the first Reaper himself, to… weed out the weaklings, so to speak. Many wish to become the Reaper, but the life is not for everyone. Not everyone is capable of _living_ it. Without the Bloodletting, there can be no new Reaper. The Lich would disappear…forever. Once unbound, tradition can not be restored. And so, it now falls to me to name my Chosen, that you all may test him. You need not fight. You need not die. If he still stands, alive, at the end of three days' time, he will take my place, whether you test him or not. If you _do_ test him…you may win. He who bests my Chosen, becomes the Chosen, and must survive the remainder of the time. Candidates, prepare yourselves." Bored as he was with Tanner's way of speech, Reno focused on him carefully, as did the other candidates. It _wasn't_ a last-man-standing deal, as he'd worried it might be. It was just that one man in particular had to remain standing. Reno had always been good at surviving.

"Reno." Reno was pretty sure that he was the only one of the candidates _not_ surprised when Tanner spoke his name and beckoned. Reno walked closer to him, careful not to turn his back on the other candidates. The Bloodletting hadn't started yet, but there was no reason to let them start plotting together _already_. Tanner smiled his cold, half-smile. "Reno. To you, I hand-delivered my invitation. Be honored…you are my Chosen." '_No shit, asshole…_' Reno only smiled, keeping his opinion of the man before him firmly to himself. The other candidates were muttering, and it was easy for him to pick out which three were going to actively cause him trouble. They glared at him, and he turned away. On his other side, Sim smiled encouragingly. '_At least __**someone's**__ on my side…_' Reno grinned, and wandered back to stand on the fringes of the candidates again. If they were smart, they would strike out at him quickly, as soon as the Bloodletting began, but he suspected that they would waste time plotting some complicated plan, and deny themselves the opportunity for a quick victory. He smiled again, to himself this time. He wouldn't bother waiting, and he was quick on the draw. Gunslingers had nothing on him.

"The Bloodletting will begin when the clock strikes half-after. The Bloodletting will end on the third day, at 1830." The crowd of onlookers dispersed at Tanner's words. There were 7 minutes until 1830, and nobody wanted to be around when the killing started. Sim blew Reno a kiss on his way out of the area, and Reno smirked, pretending to catch it. He then drove the blond-haired boy out of his mind, and quickly began to plan his escape routes.

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**A/N:** Ok, so I admit I don't really like this chapter a whole lot. Tanner talks too much, Reno's going after a piece of ass like he's never gotten any before (which, ok, he hasn't in this story, unless you count his dad, which let's be honest, doesn't actually count…), and most of it's written pretty heavy-handedly (if you ask for my personal opinion on it…) as a means to getting to the next part of the story. I don't want to write ridiculously long chapters though, and this seemed like a decent stopping point before I type out the next part (which will probably be really, really short, but which will hopefully contain a lemon of some kind to make up for it).

**EDIT: **I read a story by another person a few days ago that mentioned gil notes instead of coins, which i thought was a brilliant way of solving the pocket-full-of-coins issue, so I've adopted a similar idea, and no longer am using dollars in the story. Still using "bucks" though - Reno has to have _some_ slang :p

That all done and complained about, thanks for more reviews and watches :) it's all much appreciated, guys.

As usual, feel free to point out any grammar, spelling, spacing, etc that I've messed up on. I'd rather get a little criticism and fix it than find the typos later and want to slap myself :P With that in mind, I've made some minor changes to Chapter 3, in order to try and clear up some confusion about who's doing what towards the middle of the story. I've also fixes some typos and such that I missed before, but there might be plenty more, since I don't have a Beta, so if you spot them, pleeease let me know.

And anyone who would be willing to Beta for me is more than welcome to send me a message ;)


	6. Ch 5 The Bloodletting, Pt 2

**Warnings:** A little bit of violence, **lemon**, large time-warps because I can't be assed to write 2 full years of Reno running a mob and pissing everyone else off

* * *

_Chapter 5 – The Bloodletting, Part 2_

* * *

The instant the bell in the distance tolled 1830, Reno whipped around, facing the three who he considered to be his primary opponents, and fired off a round. His target went down in a heap, blood oozing from the hole that had appeared, dead-center in his forehead. Spinning again before the others could get over the shock of his quick attack and retaliate, he bolted, disappearing into the shadows of a nearby alley. '_Dumb fuckers never even saw it coming…_' He chuckled to himself as he ran, slowing down to an easy lope once he was well out of sight. There weren't even any footsteps running after him. '_Too shocked and stupid to take me out before __**I**__ have time to plot against __**them**__. Too bad, should have taught themselves to think and plan on the fly if they wanted a job like this. The next 3 days'll be a breeze…_'

He left the sector entirely, figuring nobody had told him not to, and stocked up on some supplies at the first store he found in Sector 3. The clerk looked at him like he was insane for running around with no jacket, and given how cold it was with the onset of winter, Reno couldn't blame him for the stare. '_Fucking brat… has her own fucking jacket._' Shaking his head, Reno grabbed the water bottled, case of beer, and food that he'd just bought, and returned cautiously to Sector 4.

By the time he arrived back at the starting point, the others were long gone. The man he'd shot had been dragged off to the side, and Reno was only mildly surprised to see three other bodies with him. He figured the two left "in charge" had a problem with sharing power, and these were the three who hadn't had the sense to hide fast enough. '_Four down, two to go…_' He wasn't concerned about the other six. They'd probably just hide for the next three days while the killing sorted itself out at the top.

Shrugging to himself, he slipped back into the shadows of the alley he was watching from and snuck into the adjacent building. He was pleased to see that there was hardly any dust on the ground floor; closed doors and windows had helped with that, and now he wouldn't leave a bunch of noticeable footprints on his way upstairs. Making his way to the third floor, he readied his makeshift nooses, made sure his HK was easily accessible, and popped open a beer. Like he'd thought earlier, the next three days would be a breeze.

* * *

As he'd expected, his two primary opponents didn't return to the starting point until the third day. He figured they'd either spent their time looking for him or hunting down their other "competition", and now they were back to lay an ambush for him. After all, he had to return to the start point some time… He smirked, setting his water bottle down carefully behind him. The empty beer cans were lined up along the far wall, along with his empty food wrappers, where they wouldn't get in his way, and he wouldn't accidentally knock everything over and make a ton of noise. Nothing made noise quite like a bunch of aluminum cans being knocked around.

Scooting up a little closer to the grimy window to get a better look, he carefully lifted the ends of his climbing lines. He had spent the morning preparing them, stringing the two longer lines in between buildings, and setting up the other two so that he could drop the noose end down when his victims were in position. The ends of his drop lines were fed through a tiny hole at the corner of his window, and had knots tied in the end so he wouldn't drop them. During the Meet and Tanner's rather long-winded speech, he had carefully memorized where his opponents were standing before Tanner called them over, and he was right in guessing that they'd pick that spot to stand when they returned to the area. His first target, a burly man with grizzled black hair (who Reno had uninventively nicknamed "Grizzly"), was standing a little too far left to drop the noose on him. The other one, who was plain and unremarkable enough that Reno simply called him "Two", was in the perfect spot, however, and Reno smiled, waiting for him to turn his head.

He didn't have long to wait; Grizzly muttered something, hefting his machine gun and kicking at the wall next to him, and Two turned to respond. Reno dropped the line immediately, and hauled his end to the far side of the room, next to his line of beer cans, as soon as the noose settled around Two's neck. '_Guess it's a good thing I got the lighter one…_' Reno smirked, tying the line off to a pipe sticking out of the wall. '_Nothing like a little manual labor to make the cold go away, too._' He wiped imaginary dust from his hands, grinning again to himself, and shifted to where he could see out of another window. Two was kicking and struggling, his feet about eight feet above the ground. He was too high for Grizzly to help cut the line, and the line itself was so light and fine that it dug into Two's neck; there was no way for Two to pry his fingers underneath and save himself.

The line was also too fine to be seen clearly in the murky, dust-filled air, Reno noted. Grizzly was trying unsuccessfully to see where it led, and Reno decided he'd be a pal and help the guy out. After all, it wasn't fair to make him tax himself thinking too hard, right? '_Right!_' Reno snickered, and pulled out his gun. He jogged lightly up two flights of stairs, knowing there was an open window above him. '_I should know, I'm the one who opened the damned thing…_' He checked quickly to make sure Grizzly hadn't figured out where the line led yet, and then moved up to the window and took aim, chuckling when Grizzly turned the completely opposite direction, trying to see if the line came from the building above him. He didn't bother keeping his laughter quiet, and Grizzly quickly turned around, facing the open window. He couldn't bring his machine gun up fast enough, however, and Reno shot him once in the hand, and again in the hollow of the throat. The machine gun went flying one way in a knee-jerk reaction, and Grizzly's body fell back and away from it when the second round hit. '_Perfect._'

Sauntering down the stairs, Reno strolled over and kicked the machine gun away, before stepping over to frisk Grizzly. He didn't bother with Two; he was already limp in the noose, tongue black and swollen and protruding from his mouth. Smirking again at how easy it had all been, he leaned back against the wall to watch Grizzly die.

* * *

The other contestants crept back one by one into the Meet, looking warily around the wide intersection. Four bodies were piled against one building, covered in dust and beginning to rot from three days prior. Another body lay against a different building, apparently having bled out from the throat. What made them most nervous, however, was the fifth body, which hung silently in the middle of the intersection. His eyes were bulging, and his tongue puffed out of his mouth. There was no wind there below the Plate, and his body hung straight and still. Nobody else was around.

Six people eventually stood, nervously, in the area, looking around. They didn't bother taking each other out; whoever had killed the two top contenders was clearly still around somewhere, and they all knew they had no chance. They only hoped that he didn't feel threatened by them, and wouldn't kill them all where they stood; he obviously could if he wanted to. 1830 was only seven minutes away.

Reno watched them mill around uneasily, in front of a window in a completely different building this time. He had gathered his unused line and his empty cartridges, leaving the beer cans and food wrappers in the other building. He had also shut the window on the fifth floor, deciding that there was no sense in making anyone suspicious. Now he sipped his last water bottle and relaxed, waiting for the Bloodletting to come to an end. He didn't really see any point to killing the six people below him, even if it would be incredibly easy. They had no real desire for power, or they would have spent the three days killing each other off, but they were obviously good enough to have had some kind of chance at leading, or Tanner wouldn't have invited them ('_Unless he's a complete idiot, which is possible…_'). There was no sense in getting rid of skilled people.

The bell tolled, and he tossed the water bottle over his shoulder, shivering slightly and making his way back downstairs. '_I should have run home and grabbed another jacket when I went to buy food_,' he grumbled to himself, rolling his shoulders irritably. '_Damned kid._'

It occurred to him, as he made it down to the ground floor, that his six peers could easily kill him, nominate one of themselves as the "victor", and claim to Tanner that it had happened before the bell tolled, but he was less worried about that than he was about the cold, truth be told. If any of them were truly that ambitious, they would have done what Regis did to Mel's gang not too long ago, and rigged the entire Meet with explosives. What easier way of getting rid of the competition?

As it was, he was still a little tense when he walked outside, strutting as if he owned the place. '_Well, I pretty much __**do**__, now._' The other six turned around quickly when they heard the door slam open, and he was thankful that he'd moved away quickly enough to avoid having it swing back and smash him in the face. That wasn't really the kind of impression he wanted to make on people…

He stopped in the middle of the intersection, and stared at them. They stopped moving and talking, and stared back. Minutes passed, and nobody moved. '_Great. We're all going to stand here looking at each other like a bunch of retards for the rest of the night._'

A high-pitched voice broke the silence. "Look, it's the guy with the funny hair!" The others had trouble containing their snorts of laughter as Reno gritted his teeth, turning towards the offending voice.

"Reno. My _name_ is _Reno_, kid." Alyse only giggled, walking side by side with Tanner into the area. Sim and several others from the Lich trailed in behind them.

Tanner smiled coldly, and began to talk. "Most excellent. You amaze even me." He paused, glancing up at Two's body, still dangling in the street. "Fascinating." Reno shrugged, slightly uncomfortable, and sighed when Tanner turned to address the quickly forming crowd, moving to stand near the other six contenders. Tanner was going to make another speech again…great.

One of the six whispered over to him, "I hope you don't like to hear yourself talk that much…" Reno glanced over, surprised that one of them was including him in on a joke about Tanner, and noted that the man who'd made a smart-assed comment about him being cold three days ago was one of the dead bodies against the wall. He smiled.

"Oh, don't get your hopes up. I probably talk more than most people alive." He paused, appearing to think about it. "Of course, I'm usually making fun of someone when I do it, and most people are laughing instead of falling asleep…" The others grinned, and Reno smiled back cheekily. '_Oh look. That red-headed little shit won, let's all play nice now. Jackasses…_' He didn't have a big tolerance for people who kissed ass. '_Maybe I should have shot them all after all._' Tanner droned on in the background.

* * *

Mel yawned, leaning against the bar. Four months had passed since he left his gang, turning it over to Sonny, and he had quickly learned that running a bar wasn't nearly as exciting as running a gang. His was one of the nicer ones in Sector 5, and served full meals as well as drinks, and so it tended to get more respectable customers than some of the dives in the area. That wasn't to say that there were never bar fights, because there were, and Mel loved them, but he had bouncers who took care of those things. To be honest, he had someone to take care of _everything_, and all he really did was watch them, and occasionally bartend when it got busy.

Sonny and the gang stopped by often, keeping him up-to-date with the latest news from around the slums, but it wasn't really the same as being out there with them. It didn't help that Reno had disappeared, either. The last anyone had seen him was when Sonny ran into him the day of the Bloodletting. Since then, nobody had heard anything of Reno, the outcome of the Bloodletting, or the Reaper. If anyone knew anything, they were probably in the Lich, and were keeping their damned mouths shut. Mel sighed, and wondered if Maura was right about putting up Reno's picture along the wall, where they kept small memorials to all of their friends who had fallen. '_That crazy little bastard would probably just waltz in here the day after I did it, just to piss me off._' He yawned again, and stared at the clock above the bar. 0200. Only a couple more hours before closing.

* * *

Reno's fifteenth birthday was mostly unremarked-upon. The majority of his Lich didn't even know about it. Hell, many of them didn't know he was that young to begin with, although most of them suspected it. As it was, he didn't really want a party anyway, and the less people who knew about it, the better. The only birthday present he'd ever received was a teddy bear when he turned one, and he figured he didn't really need much else. He still had the bear, tucked away in a duffel bag, and he kept it as a good reminder that birthday present didn't equal love. His mother had tried to drown him ten years after the present was given, after all.

As a result, he'd kept quiet about his birthday, figuring that even the people who knew about it would forget by the time it actually rolled around, and when the day came, he made himself scarce from the Hideout. He had come to spend most of his time in the oppressive building, running the affairs of his own private mafia from within its walls. The Lich was involved in a great deal of underground crime, from arms dealing to prostitution, and all decisions eventually came to Reno before actions were taken. His organization wasn't as vast as many people on the outside, including himself at one point, believed; there were only 67 members, including himself, opposed to the hundreds of popular belief. In spite of the relatively small size, the Lich was more powerful than even the crime ring run by Don Corneo, and many members held firm in the belief that they could give even the famed Turks a run for their money. That, however, was something never put to the test, at least during Reno's tenure as the Reaper, because he had no desire to cross paths with the so-called Shin-Ra Department of Administrative Research. They had, after all, never done anything to _him_, even if he did suspect that they were still stalking him.

In fact, he was pretty positive that they were, as he caught a brief flash of sunglasses out of the corner of his eye when he began to walk away from the Hideout. '_Some hideout…Maybe I should rename the fucking place the __**Stakeout**__…_' he muttered to himself, rolling his shoulders. Winter had come and gone, and the temperature below the plate returned to normal; not cold, but not really hot either, since the Plate blocked out natural sunlight and somewhat protected the slums below from the heat. As a result, he was dressed in the same clothes he'd worn to the Bloodletting, sans the leather jacket, which he didn't need and which Alyse still had anyway. The little brat still wandered in and out of the Hideout, even though Tanner no longer resided there and never put in an appearance, and always wore Reno's jacket. It would have driven him insane if it wasn't kind of endearing…

He shrugged, ignoring the tell-tale sign of Sunglass-Guy and driving thoughts of his semi-stolen jacket out of his mind, as he made his way out of Sector 4. It had been almost ten months since he'd last left, and he hadn't spoken to anyone in his old gang in all that time. He figured they had probably taken him for dead, since the results of the Bloodletting were never exactly made public, and he had been careful about going on jobs himself. As Sim had put it, the Lich expected him to lead by guidance and control, using _them_ as his weapons instead of doing the dirty work himself. He still went on the odd job here and there, because he liked knowing that he still had what it took, but for the most part, he listened to Sim. He usually did.

Grinning at the thought of the pretty blonde, Reno turned towards Mel's bar as soon as he made it to Sector 5. He had promised Mel all that time ago that he'd stop by, and it was high time to fulfill that promise. Besides, even if he didn't want a party, he could still cash in on it being his birthday and try to weasel free drinks out of the guy. It was only proper, after all. He smiled again, finding himself standing outside the bar. 1900 – perfect timing for some drinks.

Rubbing his hands together mischievously, he stepped forward and pulled open the door, coming face to face with Sonny. Too startled to move, the door swung back closed and smacked him in the ass, knocking him forward into Sonny. "FUCK!" The entire bar went silent, and every head turned to stare. Sonny held back a snigger, and stepped away, giving Reno a clear view of the bar, which currently seated several families enjoying dinner, a few groups of people having drinks, everyone from Sonny's gang, and, to his surprise, a couple of familiar faces from his _own_ gang, back when he ruled the children on the streets. Myrna, who sat next to Maura up at the bar, smiled and waved, cheerfully. Reno straightened, pretending like the door incident had never happened, and started to walk over, jabbing Sonny with an elbow on the way. He didn't make it that far, though.

"Son of a bitch!" Mel tackled him from the side, taking him by surprise and knocking him to the ground before hauling him up by his ponytail. "You little _bastard_! I _knew_ it! I fucking _knew_ it!"

Reno tried to get Mel to stop shaking him around, bewildered and in a fair bit of pain from his hair being yanked around. "Knew _what_? Ya finally lost it, Mel?" Mel tossed him down, belligerently, and turned to point at the wall, where a small shot glass stood upside-down in front of Reno's photo on the shelf.

"I just put it up yesterday. I put it off all this time, 'cuz I figured you'd waltz on in here the day after I put it up anyway, and here you fucking _are_." Mel sighed. "Son of a bitch…"

Reno smirked, smoothing his hair and wife beater back into place. "Happy to see you too, asshole."

Mel laughed, pulling him into a hug. "Oh well, it's about time you showed up, anyway. How the hell have ya been, kid? Here, let's grab you a drink. Aw, hell, round on the house!"

The rest of the bar cheered, and Reno grinned, following him to the bar. Just like he said 10 months ago, free booze.

* * *

By the time Reno left the bar, it was nearly 2300. He had made up for lost time with his old friends, catching up on their lives and reminiscing about the past. He hadn't said a whole lot about what he was up to now, but that was ok. They knew that he had gone to the Bloodletting 10 months ago, and it didn't take a genius to figure out who he was nowadays, so people didn't ask a whole lot of questions. Toby and Myrna were the most curious, since they hadn't seen him for years, but even they didn't pry into what he did, filling up any awkward silences with stories of their own. A great deal of time had been spent poking fun at Mel for settling down, which had led to teasing about his girlfriend. That, in turn, had led to questions about Reno. More specifically, Sonny wanted to know if he'd "met any good hookers lately," which set off a bout of laughter from the group. Maura whispered to Toby and Myrna, letting them in on the joke, and they laughed too, wondering as much as everyone else what Reno would say.

To everyone's surprise, Reno had turned, looked at the clock, and freaked out. "Ah, _shit_! I promised I'd be back in ten minutes!" He bolted for the door, and Sonny laughed.

"So much for making fun of _Mel_. Looks like Reno's been 'whipped too, and he's six years younger."

Mel laughed at Sonny's jibe, and tossed a balled up napkin at Reno's back as he dashed out. "_Hey_! At least give us her name before you run home!" At that, Reno stopped, and turned with a smirk. '_Uh-oh, time for some of that ridiculous shit we're all so used to from him…_' Everyone grinned expectantly, well-recognizing the look on Reno's face.

"The name's Sim, and he'd probably be pretty pissed off to hear you call him a girl." He laughed raucously, and fled the scene before any of them could get over their shock. Now, eight minutes before he was supposed to be back at the Hideout, he ran.

* * *

He was seven minutes late, and crept quietly up the stairs to his bedroom, hoping that Sim wasn't mad. Despite his apparent laziness in everything that he did, Reno was never actually late for anything, and he got the feeling that Sim was the kind of person who expected everyone to always be on time, if not early. As a result, he really had no idea what Sim's reaction would be to his tardiness, particularly since he'd promised that he'd be there at 2300. He was pretty sure Sim had been planning some sort of surprise for him too, since Sim was the only person who had mentioned his birthday to him all week.

He felt even more guilty when he walked quietly into his room, finding it aglow with candles and soft incense. '_Great. He plans a romantic night for my birthday, I'm probably finally going to get laid, and I'm late because I decided to go out drinking. __**This**__ is gonna go over great…_' He sighed, and shut the door softly behind him.

"You're late." He flinched, looking at the ground.

Under normal circumstances, he probably would have snapped back with some wise-ass comment ('_**Thank you**__, Captain Obvious…_'), but Sim had Reno wrapped around his little finger, much as Reno avoided admitting it, and the fact that Sim didn't even sound all that _angry_ only made him feel worse. "I'm sorry."

Sim snorted softly. His tone was amused, voice soft and melodic as always. "You will be if you don't look up here and start worshipping me." Reno could hear the quiet laughter in his voice, and chanced a glance. What he saw made him straighten instantly, eyes and mouth open wide. Sim was wearing _lingerie_.

Chuckling, Sim glided over, hips swaying tantalizingly, and Reno found himself unable to look away, amber and black lace filling his vision.

When Sim said Reno would be worshipping him, he wasn't kidding. A dark corset, made of black lace over a shiny amber material, hugged his upper body, ending short enough to display a large expanse of midriff. A sheer black cloth, split down the front, hung down from the top of the corset, falling just far enough to brush against Sim's hips, fluttering gently as he walked and seeming to expose more than it covered. Softly curved hips were adorned by the barest bits of fabric, a dark thong held together by slender strips of black lace. More lace formed delicate garter straps, holding up a set of sheer stockings that showed off all of Sim's ample legs and dainty feet; he wore no shoes, and slipped closer silently, the only sound the subtle shifting of fabric. Bathed in the warm light of a hundred softly-glowing candles, his creamy skin took on a golden tone, matching the amber and contrasting the black beautifully.

A long, slender finger gently pushed up on Reno's chin, compelling him to close his mouth, and Sim moved in closely, running delicate hands slowly down Reno's chest as he breathed softly into his ear, "You're late…but I'll forgive you." Reno moved slowly, as if in a daze, wrapping his arms around and sliding his hands from Sim's shoulder blades down to cup his ass. It was completely bare beneath the sheer fabric falling from the corset, and Reno swallowed, feeling himself grow hard as he pulled Sim closer. The blonde obliged, rolling his hips slowly, torturously, against Reno's. His warm lips grazed Reno's, but before the redhead could deepen the kiss, Sim pilled away completely, stepping backwards. He gave Reno a sultry smile and backed up slowly towards the bed, crooking a finger to indicate that Reno should follow. Smirking, Reno followed him, pulling off his boots and socks along the way.

Sim perched on the edge of the bed and spread his legs, leaning back on one hand and stroking himself through the fabric of his thing with the other. Biting back a groan at the sight, Reno pulled of his wife beater before straddling Sim's lap, pushing him back and gripping both wrists above his head. Sim laughed, breathlessly, and rocked his hips into Reno's, driving the groan out of him after all. Reno quickly restrained Sim's hips with his own, leaning forward to ravish the blonde's mouth. Their tongues twined together in a brief battle for dominance, before Sim gave up on winning that battle and wriggled his hips again. Moaning softly, Reno gave in, rocking his hips in time with Sim's. The kiss lasted until they ran out of breath and had to break apart, panting and hearts pounding from the friction between their rubbing erections.

Sitting up abruptly, Reno released Sim's wrists and pulled him up as well, hands working quickly to remove his corset. Laughing, Sim batted his hands away, squirming out from under his lap and dragging him further onto the bed. Sim then pulled Reno into a sitting position again and sat on his lap, rubbing his soft ass over Reno's erection before tossing his hair over his shoulder and slowly undoing the lacing on his corset, giving Reno a lap dance and a strip tease all at once.

Reno cursed softly, and dove forward as soon as the corset was off, nipping and kissing down Sim's jawline and to his collarbone, leaving a series of bruises in his wake. Lowering Sim down until he was settled between the teen's stockinged legs, Reno continued down Sim's chest, pausing to suckle at a tawny nipple, rolling it between his teeth until it became hard. He then moved over to the other nipple, giving it the same treatment until Sim whimpered and bucked beneath him, begging wordlessly for Reno to continue. Chuckling, Reno gave each nipple a hard kiss before moving further down Sim's body, briefly dipping a hot tongue into his navel, thrusting it in and out suggestively.

Sim whimpered again, and Reno moved lower still, pulling the lacy thong away with his teeth and bringing his hands in to caress Sim's inner thighs, dragging his fingers in slow, firm circles along sensitive flesh, teasing but never touching. With his mouth, he lipped the sensitive skin around Sim's erection, cheek grazing his hardened member. "_Reno…_" Reno chuckled against his groin, still rubbing deliberate circles along his thighs.

"Yes?" Devious blue eyes peered up from under a mane of crimson hair, damp with sweat, and Sim groaned.

"Please. _Please_…Don't tease me."

Reno chuckled again. "If you insist…" He slowly lipped at the base of Sim's cock, massaging his balls slowly and gently as Sim's erection throbbed beneath his mouth. Delighting in Sim's moans of pleasure, Reno slowly, torturously, moved his lips up Sim's shaft until he reached the tip of his penis, already leaking pre-cum as Sim's entire body arched in expectation. Smirking at his lover's wanton behavior, Reno cupped Sim's balls in his hands and breathed hotly along his pulsing cock, taking just the tip of it into his mouth and swirling his tongue slowly around it. Sim gasped, thrusting his hips upward as Reno dipped his tongue into the slit. Reno bobbed his head shallowly up and down for several minutes, delighting in the taste and feel of the cock pulsating in his mouth, and smiled around it as he heard Sim whimper for more.

Mot then happy to oblige his lover, Reno allowed his mouth to slide down the length of Sim's shaft, swallowing every inch of it, dragging his tongue down along the sensitive underside. Sim's whimpers quickly turned into throaty moans as Reno pulled back and then slid his mouth down again, and again, picking up speed each time he repeated the action. Before long, Sim was bucking his hips in time with the pumping of Reno's mouth, the tip of his cock slipping down the back of Reno's throat, his body driven wild with lust at the sensation. Reno, feeling the tightening of Sim's muscles and scrotum, massaged Sim's balls and the base of his erection, pumping his head up and down even faster.

Sim came hard, shooting heavily into Reno's mouth. Smirking, Reno swallowed most of it, allowing a little bit to dribble down his lips. Crawling up Sim's body, Reno made sure Sim's eyes were locked on his face before licking the cum off of his lips, settling on top of Sim's heaving body so that his own hardened member dug into Sim's hip, reminding him that the night was far from over.

Catching his breath a little, Sim purred and ran his slender fingers down Reno's sides. "It appears we have a slight problem." Reno lifted a brow in question, and Sim smirked. "You still have your pants on." Reno smirked back and sat up, allowing Sim to access the button on the front of his cargo pants. "No underwear?"

Reno chuckled, sliding out of the pants and tossing them to wherever they'd thrown the rest of their clothing. "Babe, underwear only gets in the _way_." Sim laughed at that and reached a hand down to stroke him, but Reno swatted his hand away, much like he had earlier when Reno went to undo his corset. "Uh-uh, you're not getting off _that_ easy." Sim quickly found himself with his hands pinned above his head again, cock growing hard again as Reno caressed it.

"Reno!" Reno only smiled, ignoring him for the most part. His fingers, rough and scarred from years of fighting, stroked slowly from base to tip, pausing to roll the head in his fingertips before palming him on the way down and starting the process over. Sim groaned, shaking, as he felt his erection swell for the second time that night.

A few more strokes, and Reno decided they were ready for the next stage. Reaching into the stand at the side of the bed, he pulled out a bottle of scented oil, holding it tightly in his hands and blowing on it to get it warm. Sim watched him, fixated and panting with anticipation, and Reno smirked, uncapping the bottle and drizzling it slowly over Sim's nipples. Sim whimpered when Reno caressed them, smearing the oil around them and quickly bringing them to tautened peaks again, before drizzling the oil on his fingers, using one to slowly circle Sim's entrance.

Slowly, so slowly that it was practically torture, he pressed a finger inside, groaning a bit at how tight Sim's canal was. He thrust the finger in and out slowly a few times, before sliding a second one in to join it. He scissored them back and forth, gently, before curling them a little and thrusting again, rubbing tenderly until he found Sim's prostate. It was obvious to both when he'd found it; Sim immediately tensed and arched off the bed, crying out. Reno grinned, rubbing around the spot without touching it until Sim was a quivering mess, before he scissored his fingers a few more times and pulled them out completely.

Sim glared at him, but Reno forestalled any protests, grabbing the bottle of oil again and slowly pouring some on his own shaft. Sim licked his lips, hungrily, watching Reno stroke himself and spread the oil, and Reno dragged the moment out, knowing it was driving Sim crazy. Finally, however, he'd had enough himself, and gave Sim a light swat on the hip. "On your hands and knees, sweetheart." Sim complied readily, resting his weight on his elbows and arcing his back so that his rear end was up in the air, presenting Reno with an irresistible target.

Sim shuddered with satisfaction as Reno moved forward, smoothly inserting the head into his entrance and pumping his tip in and out of the opening, allowing some pre-cum to build up there. After doing this for a few moments, Reno suddenly thrust his hips forward, letting the pre-cum lubricate the way as he slammed his entire cock deep into Sim's ass. Sim cried out sharply in pain, and Reno paused for a moment before continuing so that Sim could adjust. A moment was all he gave, however, and he quickly pulled out all the way to the tip again and then, like before, slammed his shaft in, gripping Sim's hips and jerking them back on his cock. Sim's cry this time was mingled with pleasure as he noted the sensation of that burning, quivering shaft sliding through him and pounding in. Grinning at the pleasure in Sim's voice, Reno began thrusting rhythmically, unable to contain his own moans of ecstasy as he pounded in. By this point, Sim was beyond feeling any pain, and he cried out in time with Reno, pushing against his elbows and trying to shove himself back onto Reno's dick each time Reno thrust forward and jerked on his hips.

Sim's own cock bounced each time Reno slammed into him. Reno took one hand off of Sim's hips, where bruises in the form of fingerprints were starting to form, and closed his fist around Sim's cock, jacking it off in time with his own plunging dick. Blood rushed in their ears, and the two could barely hear their own noise as Reno fucked Sim as hard as he could.

Sim was the first to cum, shooting his load all over Reno's pillows. Reno cried out with a quick curse when he felt Sim clench around him, feeling his own body tense and tighten up. He only lasted a couple more thrusts before he too came, ejecting his seed deep inside of Sim. Rocking a few more times until they both rode out their orgasms, Reno finally allowed himself to collapse, pulling Sim down next to him in the bed.

They lay there quietly, Reno still buried deep, with his own cum dribbling slowly out from around him and dripping down Sim's thighs to land on the bedspread. He brushed Sim's hair out of the blonde's face, taking only a moment to realize that Sim had fallen asleep. He smiled, draping a leg over Sim's hip and pulling his chest close before closing his eyes as well.

'_Guess I could stand having more birthday celebrations after all…_' He smirked to himself before falling asleep, nose tucked gently into Sim's hair.

* * *

**A/N:**

I am sadly disappointed with my lemon :( As much fun as it was to write about Sim wearing lingerie, it wasn't nearly as much fun writing the actual sex scene -sigh- Where's Rude when you need him? :p Oh well, it'll get better once it's Reno and Rude later on...

Guess this chapter wasn't as short as I expected it to be, at least ;)

If my grammar usage in any place (such as my use of the word "dragged" or "snuck") bothers anyone… I'm sorry :p As always, feel free to point out any mistakes that I've made (I caught myself a couple times skipping words, and I'm sure there's spelling and spacing errors still in there somewhere...)

**YOURMOMONTOAST:** If he wasn't from Midgar, I'd picture him as some sort of "Southern Belle" type person :) As it is, I considered making him from Gongaga or someplace just so I could make it fit, but typing dialogue in accents is tough if you're not used to it,so I desisted (which is why Reno and his fellow slum rats don't have any particular speech patter... every so often words like "ya" or "fuckin'" slip out, but not often enough to call it a dialect).

**tala-fangirl:** thanks for the review :) Next part should be up sometime in the next couple of days ;)


	7. Ch 6 The Reaping

**Warnings:** A little gore, some language, not much else 'till the next chapter.

* * *

_Chapter Six – The Reaping_

* * *

Reno would be 16 in two days, and he was seriously contemplating shooting himself before it happened. He was fairly certain that the gods hated him.

The past year hadn't been bad. In fact, for the most part it had been great. He had run the Lich much as he had the first ten months, keeping close track of the group's finances, and even closer track of the jobs they pulled. None of the jobs had been conducted on the behalf of anyone outside Midgar, except for a handful of arms deals, and Reno had been careful not to accept any deals that would bring the Turks down upon his head; they were, after all, still watching him. He was equally careful about the jobs he pulled within Midgar itself, taking into account the fluctuating tensions of the Gang Wars, the rivalries between the other mobs in the city, and even popular political opinions, before signing off on anything.

Past Reapers, Tanner included, hadn't been as careful with the Lich's activity, and had paid heavily for their negligence. Reno's Lich brought in approximately 85 more gil than any of the past Reapers had achieved, even taking into account rising inflation rates, and everyone in the Lich benefited from it.

Even more importantly, in Reno's eyes at least, was the lower cost in lives. Past Reapers had had a fairly large turnover rate, and had to replace fallen members every month. Tanner, the worst of the lot so far as Reno could tell, had had to replace people nearly every week. It wasn't a training issue, merely a severe mismanagement of resources. Tanner had been careless with his jobs, and often assigned people to certain tasks whose skills lay in other areas. If there was one "management skill" that Reno excelled at above all others, it was reading people. He could tell, often at first glance, what a person's personality was. Give him a second looks, and he knew what they were good at doing, what they _weren't_, their inner fears, their inner desires. He knew _people_, and he knew how to use them. Thus, his Lich prospered, the product of careful management and meticulous records-keeping.

His personal life fared equally well – he maintained close ties with his old friends, using Mel as a confidant (and a source of free drinks), Toby and Myrna whenever he needed to just hang out and relax. Sonny had brought the old gang out of relative obscurity, raising them into his own mob of sorts, specializing in information-gathering. He even had access to information from the Upper Plate, and was always willing to lend Reno a hand when needed. The aid was mutual, as Reno had promised years ago, and the two became close friends, often sitting in a quiet corner of Mel's place, bouncing ideas and stories back and forth.

Reno's love life, unfortunately, had settled into something completely different. It wasn't that the sex was bad (it wasn't), or that Sim was straying (as far as Reno could tell, anyway). If anything, Sim was too damned close. Reno was at his beck and call, completely twisted around the man's finger, and Reno hated it. He had difficulty saying "no" where Sim was involved, and consequently wound up with Sim _always there_. He was constantly nosing around in Reno's business, second-guessing Reno's decisions for the Lich and voicing his opinion over everything. Reno had thought he was soft-spoken and quiet; now he knew better. There had been several times during the past year when he'd found himself wishing that the pretty blonde _would_ attach himself to someone else; it would give him a hell of a lot more breathing room, and a lot _less_ trouble, such as the problem he was now facing.

Reno sighed, running a hand through his hair. The Lich had several members who were skilled at infiltration and assassination, including Reno himself. As a result, it was not uncommon for them to receive hit jobs around the city, often asking for whole groups of people to be taken out. Late last night, Reno had received an offer for a similar job, which wasn't that uncommon by itself.

What made it unusual, however, was that this job was for above the Plate, and had been offered by an outsider, a man from Wutai. The job was to eliminate the Turks.

Now, under normal circumstances Reno was up for a challenge; he liked to prove that the Lich was worthy of its frightening reputation. However, he never accepted jobs like this from outside of Midgar – it was bad for local business, because there was just no way of telling what effect such a job might have on the city. The fact that the job was to take out the Turks only made the idea that much more unpalatable.

In Reno's mind, the Turks were like brothers. They performed similar work, often _against_ the various mobs and underground organizations in the slums, but had never interfered in his operations, even though many times they had had to come in behind him to clean up the messes he'd left. He even suspected that they'd helped him out on more than one occasion, although he never saw any proof to confirm that his suspicions were correct. Trying to get rid of the Turks would be like backstabbing family, and Reno had no intention of ever doing so.

Additionally, a proposed hit on the Turks meant that someone wanted Shin-Ra's watchdogs out of the picture. Many people below the Plate blamed the vast company for all their problems, but Reno knew better. The problems in the slums couldn't be changed by a simple regime change. The poverty was too ingrained into people's souls down there, too much a part of the system as a whole. Even if the system was able to change, which Reno highly doubted, the people wouldn't. Everyone complained about wanting a better life, but few had the courage to take it when one was offered, preferring to remain in the comforting, familiar lives that they knew. Giving someone the opportunity to actually pull off some sort of coup would only hurt the city in the end.

In any case, Reno had no intentions of accepting the offer or even meeting with the Wutaiian, even though the man had moved into an abandoned building on the edge of Sector 3 while he waited for a response. All his other valid reasons aside, with how closely the Turks watched him nowadays, there was no possible way they didn't know about the job offer; they'd kill him in a heartbeat if he was foolish to accept, and would probably take down the rest of the Lich while they were at it. The Turks had an even more impressive reputation than the Lich, and he knew they'd earned it, just as he'd earned _his_.

He sent the man a reply early that morning, informing him that the answer was "no". He continued to say that the man had 72 hours for him and his men to evacuate the city, before the Reaper considered him a threat to operational stability and eliminated him. He made the letter as impersonal and inoffensive as possible, since he figured only a madman would try hiring someone to kill off the Turks, and he didn't particularly want the guy after him too. Relatively pleased with himself, he'd spent a half hour planning on how to inform the Lich of the rejected job, knowing he'd have to explain carefully to avoid an uproar. His efforts, however, were in vain. Sim found out about his response a few minutes later, and all hell broke loose.

'_The problem with doing so good at this job is that everyone gets used to the money, and bitches when a well-paying job is turned down,_' he thought cynically, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Sim had tried to convince Reno to change his mind, but quickly discovered that jobs were one of the few things he absolutely would not give in on. In retaliation, Sim had, predictably, made sure the entire Lich immediately knew about the job, the potential money involved, and the fact that Reno had refused to accept it. He hadn't bothered explaining to them _why_ Reno turned it down, which made perfect sense, since he also hadn't bothered to listen when Reno explained to _him_ the reasoning behind the decision. The Lich was in an uproar, with everyone demanding that Reno go back and accept the job. '_Funny how they forget that it's __**my**__ fucking decisions that have made them all so well-off in the first place, those ungrateful __**bastards**__…_' He had wound up leaving the Hideout after informing everyone that he would _not_ be changing his mind, and that they'd all be wise to think twice to do anything as "moronic and suicidal" as crossing a group like the Turks, who had all the wealth and might of Shin-Ra ("to _include_ their Soldiers, you fucking idiots…") behind them.

Now, after sitting for a few hours in his old hidden home (affectionately called Hole in the Wall the day he first moved into it over three years ago), he figured he probably shouldn't have insulted them quite so much. At the very least, he shouldn't have insulted them and then _left_; who knew _what_ they'd plan when left to their own devices. The Lich was composed of a well-trained group of individuals, who had all been loyal to him for the past two years, but he was well aware that some of them harbored some resentment towards him. Tanner had chosen him from the outside, passing over many of their own for the job, and many would never really forgive him for that. Now that they were all angry about the job, and no doubt convinced that he was wrong by Sim's loud mouth, there was no telling how many of them might turn on him. A well-trained mob was, after all, still just a mob.

Reno sighed, getting to his feet. His old cargo pants had been worn out and had to be replaced, and his favorite black wife beater had been mended many times over, but little had actually changed in his appearance over the past two years. His clothing had become as much a symbol of him as his hair, and he saw no need to change what he wore. The all-black clothing made him look more sinister and cruel than he really was, which helped when he needed to intimidate people, as he was going to have to do now. His old knife, sharp as the day he first felt its bite, went into its usual pocket, and his trusty old HK went into the holster hidden beneath his waistband. He walked out the door, heading back into the heart of Sector 4, and hoped he wouldn't have to use either of them.

* * *

The Hideout was completely silent when he entered, and he immediately stopped, nerves tingling on full alert. There was no talking, no movement, no _breathing_, when only a few hours ago the building had contained over sixty people. Something was seriously wrong. He crept quietly up the stairs, not trusting to the elevator in the corner, and kept a careful watch out for trip wires or other booby traps. The entire Lich didn't just _disappear_ without leaving _something_ behind.

He made it up to the floor his office was on without incident, and that fact only set his nerves even more on edge. No explosives had detonated, no garroting wire reached out from the shadows to strangle him, nothing happened. He glided forward on the balls of his feet, moving swiftly and silently down the hallway. He knew exactly which floorboards squeaked or shifted, and he avoided them all, making no noise to break the silence. He stopped abruptly when he reached his office.

All of Reno's files were locked in the safe, and he had never told anyone, even Sim, the combination. The lock was well-made, and didn't give any sounds away when passing the correct numbers, preventing someone from cracking it with a stethoscope. Any other form of break-in would take the better part of a day to complete. As a result, he hadn't bothered to shut the office door when he left. Now, however, it was firmly closed, and he was filled with a dark sense of foreboding.

After looking at the door for a few minutes, he decided not to worry too much about booby traps; there had been plenty of opportunity for them to kill him on his way in, without having to destroy any of the upper floors. A little more confident with that decision, he reached out and turned the knob, pushing the door in.

The coppery smell of blood and fear assaulted his nose.

The first thing he saw, when he stepped into the office, was the blood splattered across his walls. The second thing he saw was the sleeve of an old leather jacket, sticking out from behind the blood-soaked desk. He paled instantly; he recognized that jacket. Swallowing a hard lump in his throat, he slowly rounded the desk, looking down at Alyse's pale form. Her skin, already pale from living her eight years of life below the Plate, was translucent from blood loss, marred by a vivid red gash across her neck. Her hair, once a bright copper, was now the same color as his.

'_Your hair is a funny color_.' He closed his eyes, seeing her cheerful face grinning up at him, holding a 20 gil note in her little hand. '_Look! I found money!_' He opened his eyes again. It was too late to avoid seeing her like this; visions of the past would only hurt him now. Taking a deep breath, he willed himself into a semi-detached state. He didn't have time to grieve over the child.

There was a note on the desk, the crisp white paper soaking up blood on its edges. '_Why don't you take a look in the bathroom?_' He didn't recognize the handwriting, and he didn't have to think very hard to know that he definitely did _not_ want to "take a look in the bathroom". What could they possibly have left for him that would be worse than Alyse? He knelt down then, reaching out to touch his fingertips to her brow. Her skin was cold, and it was easy to convince himself that she wasn't real. '_Not a little girl. Just a doll that someone broke and left here. Just a broken little doll…_' It wasn't as easy as he thought. His eyes burned, and his father's voice echoed in his head, barely remembered after four and a half years. '_I'd better not see one fucking tear…_' Reno blinked once, twice. He wouldn't cry.

Standing and turning his back on the broken figure on the floor, he stalked out of the room, leaving bloody footprints in his wake. The bathroom was at the other end of the hall, and he made his way there quickly, wanting to get this nightmare over with. He had a score to settle now, and the day was almost half over.

He kicked the bathroom door open, and immediately wished he hadn't. There was more blood on the walls, but this time it formed a message. '_**You shouldn't have turned down the job.**_' He stared at the wall, blankly, willing himself not to look at the crumpled body below the words. He couldn't stop himself no matter how hard he tried, and he stepped closer, against his will. '_No…_'

The body was almost unrecognizable. The skin had been completely peeled away and discarded. Judging by the erratic smears of blood and other bodily fluids across the tile, it had been done while…the person…was still alive. The only thing left to recognize him by was the hair, matted with congealing blood. He dropped to his knees, ignoring the stabbing pain when his kneecaps cracked against the tile, and gathered up a handful of that hair, cradling it to his chest. Only a small clump of it was still blonde; the rest had been dyed pink and red, and dripped from his hands. He trembled violently, staring blankly at it. "Sim…" He had called him a loudmouth, had been angry with him for being too nosy, too overbearing. He had wished him _gone_, and now… Now he was.

* * *

Standing in the shadows of a nearby building, two men in dark suits were the only witnesses to the scream that ripped through the air. It was full of so much agony that at first, they thought he was dying. As it continued, they caught themselves wondering if it was even human. The scream trailed off into nothingness, and they lowered their eyes to the ground, ashamed. They could have stopped this, if they'd wanted to. Given that the job had involved them, they probably even had the _right_ to stop it, to protect the teenager that they had watched for so many years…but they hadn't, and his scream echoed in their minds long after it had stopped.

* * *

When Reno stepped out of the Hideout, his cheeks were dry, and his chest was still and silent. No tears or hiccupping breaths gave him away, and his eyes reflected no grief. In his hand, he carried a list with 64 names on it, written in black ink. They weren't written in any particular order, and he scanned them quickly, picking out the names that were closest to his current location, before stuffing the list in his pocket. His so-called family had murdered an innocent girl, and had taken the most important person in his life away from him. He had a score to settle, and _all_ of them would pay. He had a day and a half to settle the debt, before it would be time to rid his city of unwanted guests.

* * *

The slums of Midgar were quiet that night. Nobody walked the streets, nobody gathered in bars or restaurants. Families huddled together in their homes, silent and afraid. Earlier in the afternoon, when rumors began floating around that the Reaper was out for blood, nobody really paid any mind to the whispers. The Reaper and his Lich were _always_ up to something, after all, and it rarely involved most people. As the day progressed, however, the rumors grew thicker, and people began to worry.

_The Reaper was hunting down members of his own Lich, cutting them down where they stood._

_Several bodies had been found with large __**R**__'s carved into their foreheads. Someone said they were related to a junior member of the Lich._

_More bodies turned up in Sector 6. They all had an __**R**__ carved into their faces._

_Bodies started turning up over in Sector 2. No one even knows who they were._

And so they went, becoming more gruesome and disturbing as the day wore on. Nobody knew _why_ the Reaper was destroying the Lich and their extended families, and as the murders increased, people became too afraid to venture any guesses. Everyone began to wonder if perhaps _they_ were related to a Lich member without even knowing it, and slowly, slowly, the cowering city below the Plate shut down. Businesses began closing without warning, and the inhabitants of the slums went into hiding, terrified that the next knock on their door would be from the hand of death.

* * *

Mel's bar was one of the last places to shut down that evening. By 2130, the body count had risen to over 100, and was still rising. Reno's friends, the few true friends he had from before the Bloodletting, gathered silently, accepting the drinks that Mel passed around with quiet nods of thanks. Even Myrna, still the youngest of them all, was there that night, curled up against Toby's side for comfort. They all waited on Sonny, hoping he'd bring some solid news with him when he arrived. They weren't disappointed, crowding around him when walked in, handing him a drink as he settled.

"Well, the rumors that it's the Reaper are true, in case anyone was doubting that. He's mostly been moving from Sector to Sector, taking out the members of the Lich as he comes across them. The other deaths are, as suspected, family members."

"Why is he doing this? What _happened_?" Maura was the first to voice the question that had been plaguing them all, and they looked to Sonny expectantly, hoping for an answer. He sighed.

"_That_ I don't know for certain; what I know are only rumors and guesses. From what we've been able to put together, it looks like someone offered him a job that he turned down. I don't know what it was, just that it was big, and the Lich got mad when they found out he didn't take it. They killed someone to teach him a lesson, and he started going on a killing spree, some time around 1200 today. I haven't been able to find out who they supposedly killed."

Nobody needed to be told anyway. Reno had talked about Sim often when he came to the bar, and it hadn't been hard for anyone to see past his complaints and general whining that he was really in love. Mel looked down at his hands, angrily. "They took the best thing that's ever happened to that kid. Those bastards deserve everything he gives to them. I hope he gets them _all_." His words were harsh, bloodthirsty. Everyone else in that silent gathering agreed wholeheartedly.

* * *

No change in light marked the turning of the next day, no shadows eventually lengthened into dusk below the Plate. Deep in the ruins of the Sector 4 slums, there weren't even any neon lights to do the job. No people walked the abandoned avenues on their way home from work, no children's voices rang out through the streets. In the dank ruins that formed Sector 4, there were no lights. No noise. Hardly any life, and what little there was, was slowly bleeding away.

Had there been anyone present to witness Reno's slow progress towards the Hideout, they would have had trouble distinguishing his red hair from the blood that clotted it, the blood that streaked his skin and soaked into his clothing. That blood wasn't his, but the blood falling to the ground was, and it showed in his face. His cheeks appeared sunken, his skin pale and waxy, making the twin scars on his cheekbones stand out vividly. His eyes, surrounded by bruise-like shadows, were dull and tired.

The past day had been brutal, emotionally and physically. With the opening of a single door, his life had been turned upside down, shredding his heart and his humanity along with it. The Lich had paid for their transgression, several times over. All but one were dead, along with the majority of their families. Several homes had been burned to the ground, and his mark, that bold, slashing **R**, littered the slums. Hardly any areas were untouched. The only member of the Lich who hadn't been killed was nowhere to be found, and Reno suspected that he'd fled the city entirely. It was the only way anyone could have avoided his vengeance.

Now, however, thoughts of vengeance had been swept aside, blanketed by mind-numbing exhaustion. He left a light trail of blood behind him as he dragged himself closer to the Hideout. Why he went there instead of Hole in the Wall, he wasn't really sure. Perhaps he just wanted to see Sim's body one last time, before he drank to death. He certainly didn't have any real reason to keep living after this.

Sighing when the Hideout finally came into view, he straightened, forcing himself to walk without limping. If this was his last act before he died, he wanted to go out with a little dignity. When he got close enough to see the front door, however, he stopped. '_Didn't I shut that behind __me when I left yesterday?_' Only a fool, or a member of the Lich, would dare enter the Hideout uninvited. He set his jaw, pulling his knife out of his pocket. Apparently, he still had work to do.

Pain and fatigue forgotten, he slipped quietly up to the building, listening before he went inside. He heard the sounds of movement from the upper floors when he neared the stairs, and sneered coldly. '_Someone doesn't know I'm not dead yet._' Driven by his refueled desire for revenge, he made his way up the stairs quickly, making no sound as he went. The sounds were coming from his office, and his eyes narrowed in anger when he saw that Alyse's body had been unceremoniously dumped in the hallway. '_That was a mistake._' He put the knife away and pulled out his HK instead. He hadn't used it much the previous day, preferring to get dirty with his blade, so he still had half a magazine left in the gun. Bracing himself, he swiftly kicked open the door.

"…Sim?"

* * *

**A/N:**

Insert cliffhanger of doom. (Sorry, I stole that from someone, but I don't remember who)

Sorry, it's late, and I'm having serious issues writing this scene, so I decided to chop it off here and stick the rest in another chapter. I'd say it will be a short chapter, but I said that about the last one, which is my longest chapter yet, so… yeah.

Anyway, thanks to **tala-fangirl** for another review :)

Aaand… I'm going to bed now. Feel free to point out any spelling mistakes or whatnot that I've missed.

Oh, and in case the last part of this chapter seems strangely familiar to any of you… re-read the Prologue ;) We're now finally caught up to where we started from.


	8. Ch 7 The Letdown

**Additional disclaimer:** I do not own the song _Iter Impius_, which is sung by Pain of Salvation. (You all should listen to it, by the way; it's an awesome song)

**Warnings:** Violence, a lot of blood, and a bit of insanity. Flashbacks are in all _italics_.

* * *

_Chapter Seven - The Letdown_

* * *

"…_Sim?"_

Reno lowered his gun, slowly. The hallway was suffocating suddenly, the walls closing in slowly around him. His head spun a little, and he took deep breaths, forcing himself to remain conscious. He blinked once, twice, and holstered the gun, wondering if he was just seeing a hallucination as a result of fatigue and blood loss. The image before him didn't change, except that the person rummaging through his desk straightened up to look at him.

"You're supposed to be dead." Sim's words were flat, only the barest hint of anger giving them any sort of emotion at all, and they echoed in Reno's mind.

"I…_what_?" Reno shook his head, trying to clear the stupor from his mind. "_Sim_? How… what the fuck do you mean _I'm_ supposed to be dead? I saw your _body!_" He flung out an arm behind him, pointing in the general direction of the bathroom to make his point. Sim merely rolled his eyes.

"Please. You saw _a_ body. It wasn't _that_ hard to find someone my height with my hair color, Reno. We just made sure to pick someone who wasn't particularly _useful_. You saw what we wanted you to see, and nothing more. Obviously." He snorted, shook his head at Reno's ignorance, and went back to rummaging through the desk. "Envelopes… cigarettes… _climbing line?_ All you keep in this damned desk is a bunch of _junk!_" He stood up again, glaring at Reno.

Reno, for his part, was staring at him blankly. He had gotten hung up at Sim's explanation of the body in the bathroom, and it was like something had short-circuited in his brain, blown a fuse. '_A…decoy…_' Why in the world would _Sim_, of all people, do that to him? A packet of cigarettes smacked him in the forehead, partially breaking him out of his stupor.

"Are you even _listening_ to me? Where the _fuck_ is it?" Reno reflected, dazedly, that Sim's voice wasn't soft at _all_, and had lost the majority of its sweet accent. It took him a moment to realize that the pack of cigarettes had been followed by some questions, but when that finally filtered through his consciousness, it was enough to knock him out of his daze entirely, and he did what years of conditioning by his father had eventually taught him to do: he blocked out his unanswered questions, his pain, his grief, and he focused on something else. In this case, Sim was the unfortunate focus of his attention, and hard as he'd been trying to _gain_ that attention, it didn't take him long to realize that maybe he didn't really want it.

Reno's eyes narrowed and his body stilled, that calm tension before a fight. "Where is _what_, exactly?" His voice was low, smooth, and Sim faltered a bit before answering.

"The combination to the safe…" He hid his uncertainty well, but Reno had picked up his hesitation anyway, and smirked.

"Well, I just _don't know_. It ain't _there_." Sim looked baffled, and Reno sneered and tapped his temple with an index finger. "I don't write that kind of shit down where traitorous little bastards like _you_ can find them, _babe_."

Sim glared, furious that Reno, who should have been _dead_ damn it! was actually standing there _mocking_ him, in _spite_ of what he'd been through the past day and a half. Determined not to lose a battle of wits against someone he considered to be a half-wit, he took a breath, and in an instant replaced his angry demeanor with a cold, uncaring façade. "Fine. You obviously won't tell me, so I'll just destroy the safe. I will make do without it."

His apparent change in personality did its job; Reno was unnerved, and shifted a little bit, his earlier confusion back to plague him. "Sim… _why_? Why are you doing this?"

Sim laughed, genuinely amused by Reno's question. "_Why?_ Reno…sweetheart. Did you _honestly_ think that someone like me would _actually_ be interested in someone like _you_?" He tossed his hair over his shoulder, chuckling. "Honey, me and Tanner had you marked for over a _year_ before we started sending out those invites. Oh," He smiled. "Don't look so surprised. Of course Tanner's involved in this. We've been partners in _everything,_" his eyes glinted cruelly as he said this, "for _years._" He laughed again before continuing along his previous train of though. "Everyone was _so_ jealous of him… The Reaper, the absolute _god_ of the slums. Those _fools!_ Tanner wasn't content with this life, these _ruins_. He was better than that, and he knew it. _We_ knew it. So, we started to plan. We had to watch for a while before we found someone who would be able to replace him. The target had to be able to actually do the job, of course… That wasn't too hard to find, really, but he couldn't be from within the Lich; they all knew I was with Tanner, and wouldn't ever go near me. He had to be gay, of course… Tanner suggested that I could dress up like a girl, but that was a bit short-sighted I think. I'd have to get naked _eventually_, after all. In any case, we found _you_. No family to speak of, a respected member of a gang, tough and rude and cocky enough to believe you were capable of anything. I expected to have to work a little harder, mind you, before I had you in my pocket, but I suppose you were actually cocky enough to believe you were just _that_ good."

Reno was staring again, and Sim smirked before continuing with a dramatic sigh. "Of course, after we found you, we had to set things up just right before Tanner could retire. As I said, everyone _knew_ I was with Tanner, so we had to… _cultivate_ them until they were in the right mind set. We couldn't have anyone suspicious about me all of a sudden sleeping with _you_. It took practically a year to get the atmosphere just right, and then Tanner sent out his applications." He sniffed. "You were too damned picky with your jobs though. We expected you to run into a job like this one much sooner, but you had a _reputation_, and _connections_. At least you made plenty of money while we waited; it wasn't all worthless. It did, however, make it less and less likely that you'd run into a job that paid well enough for our plan to actually work." He smiled yet again. "Thank the gods for Wutai. They lost the war and there are _still_ Wutaiians who think they can win. All I had to do was contact the Wutaiian before he contacted _you_, and ensure that he would be working with _me_. You turned down the job just as you were supposed to, and… well. You've seen how things worked out. As soon as we're rid of _you_, we'll complete the job, take the money, and run." His eyes narrowed. "Of course, it will be more difficult to do now that you've wrecked the Lich… but we'll manage I'm sure.

He yawned, feigning boredom. "I suppose you'll just get in our way now, though. Pity the others didn't kill you like I was expecting. Ah well…" He made an abrupt motion before speaking. "_Get rid of him_." Reno was in a headlock, being hauled backwards through the hallway, before he could even ask who Sim was talking to.

It turned out that he didn't have to ask, anyway. The headlock abruptly disappeared, and he was hurled into the wall. He crumpled into a pile at the base of the wall, looking up to see Tanner smirking down at him. "Have a fun night?" Reno groaned, hauling himself back up to his feet, but Tanner didn't give him the opportunity to recover completely, punching him hard enough to split his lip open.

Reno sagged again, dazed after his head cracked against the wall, and blinked slowly, clearing the haze from his eyes in time to see Tanner move in with a knife. '_Oh…shit!_' Adrenaline surged through his body, and he rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the blade. Fortified by his renewed burst of energy, he continued rolling until he was on his feet, reaching for his gun. Tanner was on him again before he could bring it up to shoot, and he found himself quickly embroiled in a fight for his life.

His world narrowed to the fight before him, vicious and smattered in blood. The only sound he could hear was the blood throbbing in his ears, the harsh breathing in his lungs. Everything numbed, the hollowness only broken intermittently when an old wound was reopened.

A knee found his side, and he recoiled, vision flashing red.

* * *

_Faye fought back against him, against death, slashing out wildly in the hoped of deterring his assailant. The blade tore across his side, almost deep enough to expose his ribs. He snarled, enraged by the sudden pain, and propelled his own knife forward, finding purchase in the soft flesh of Faye's groin. Blood and heat poured across his hands._

* * *

Reno twisted, pulled away enough that his injured side was no longer in direct danger, and ripped his hand from Tanner's grasp, freeing his gun.

A swift elbow connected with his jaw, and he was thrown to the floor, his shoulder impacting roughly.

* * *

_His arm hung, limp. Tomas hadn't given in easily, fighting with his bare hands until the end. A firm hand and sudden, twisting jerk had been all that was necessary to dislocate the shoulder._

_Reno grimaced, positioning the arm properly with his good hand, bracing his feet before slamming his shoulder into the wall. The shoulder was reseated with a sickening crunch._

* * *

His arm spasmed, and he paused in his efforts to shoot his opponent, hardly realizing when he dropped his gun. Tanner swiftly took advantage of the situation, knocking the gun out of the way and kicking Reno repeatedly. Reno gasped, curling up instinctively to protect his head, before his mind took over from the pain again, and began timing the blows. Tanner never even saw it coming.

His foot swung forward, aiming to deliver another kick to Reno's ribs, when all of a sudden, Reno wasn't _there_. It was too late to stop the forward momentum, and the force of his swinging foot conspired with a liberal slick of blood on the floor, leaving him flat on his back and unable to breath. It probably didn't help that Reno had kicked his other foot out from under him as he started to slip, either.

The gun was forgotten, knocked out of the way when Tanner fell. It didn't matter; Reno had his knife in hand, the wicked black blade gleaming and ready for blood. Tanner never got back up.

* * *

Sim listened to the brawl from inside the office, finally knowing fear when he realized that Reno wasn't going to lose. Tanner's screams echoed through the empty building, and Sim's eyes darted back and forth, desperate for a way out. The hallway was the only exit from the room; it didn't even have a window leading to the outside. '_Why does he have climbing rope and no __**window**__?_' Tanner's screams subsided, and he stilled, praying that Reno would forget he was there, would leave, would give him the opportunity to escape and leave the city. Surely, he was injured enough, out of his mind enough, he would just turn and walk out, or collapse, and the way would be clear…

The door swung open, silently, and Sim's eyes were drawn like a magnet to the dark blade, dripping blood. When he finally managed to drag his eyes away, it was only for them to settle on Reno's face, the splatters of blood obscuring his skin, his light freckles, even the scars below his eyes. The blood didn't obscure the _smile_, stretching across Reno's face. His eyes danced, and Sim couldn't tell if he was actually amused or just angry.

"Have you ever seen anyone skinned alive?" He didn't stop smiling the entire time.

* * *

Reno stumbled for a third time, exhausted and overbalanced by the small body in his arms. He wasn't bleeding badly, but the beatings and injuries he had taken over the past two days had worn him down. Rage and adrenaline had kept him going at the Hideout, but now all he had left was pain, and a mind-numbing emptiness that ate away at what little strength he had left. He looked down at the body in his hands, the old leather jacket worn and soaked in blood, and climbed laboriously to his feet. He was almost home.

* * *

Hole in the Wall was a bit larger than the name implied; the old office building had been abandoned for years before Reno found it, just like the rest of the buildings in the sprawling maze. Attracted by the solid outer walls and undamaged roof, he had quickly settled on the building for his home, renovating the inside as he saw fit. He hadn't had much money the first year he lived there, since he'd still been with Mel's gang at the time, so he had spent several months studying the architecture of the place, learning what walls could be knocked out, and what was needed to hold up the upper floors and roof. Once he had learned all that he could, he planned out his own floor designs, picking and choosing what rooms he wanted and how big he wanted them. Manual labor had achieved most of the rest; junk was easy to come by in the slums, and he didn't have to pay a lot to redesign the floor plans.

Once he became the Reaper, money was no longer a problem, and he was able to finish the job, turning the rough shell into a fairly comfortable home, complete with full plumbing and his very own "lab". That lab was where he went now, setting his burden down outside the door and punching in the code that would open the airseal and let him in. It wasn't a true lab; part of it was dedicated to a workshop, where he tinkered with explosives or any mechanics that caught his interest. Another area was devoted to storage, and housed tools, art supplies, and even some instruments. It hadn't taken him long to determine that the soundproofing he had equipped the room with was uniquely designed to give the lab perfect acoustics, and a piano, drums, and a guitar occupied a large corner.

The main part of the lab, however, was the half of the room devoted to medical equipment. There wasn't a lot of medical technology in the slums; he knew that Sector 1, the cleanest Sector below the Plate, had a decent medical facility, but he hadn't wanted to steal from them, knowing that the people below the Plate needed that equipment. Smaller medical supplies and various potions, however, were relatively easy to come by, particularly for someone with his connections, and he had stocked his own lab well. He even had his own examining table and gurney, although since no one had ever been to Hole in the Wall, he had never had any use for them.

Now that he did have a use for them, he wished he didn't. He turned to the body as soon as the air-sealed door was open, picking it up and carrying it to the stainless steel gurney. Laying the leather-clad bundle down, he smiled, sadly, before reaching out to brush a lock of copper hair away from her face. He couldn't really say _why_ he'd brought Alyse's body home with him. Perhaps, over the years, he'd come to look at the girl as an older brother, or a father; perhaps he just needed an excuse for his butchery. Whatever the reason, she was there to stay. Brushing another lock of hair back, he went to the corner that housed his tools, and found a shovel.

* * *

Sector 4 had been abandoned years ago, when the construction of the Upper Plate caused some minor earthquakes that damaged most of the buildings in the industrial district. Hole in the Wall had taken minimal damage from those earthquakes, but it was enough to have ruined part of the floor in what was now Reno's lab. One corner in particular, on the "hospital" side of the room, had been practically destroyed, leaving bare dirt instead of concrete. Reno had never seen a need to fix it, and now he was vaguely glad he hadn't. It was taking long enough to dig a grave, without having to break through concrete.

He didn't notice the tears when they began to roll down his cheeks.

* * *

Reno tied off another stitch, grimacing as he did so. He was tired of this, tired of having to fix himself, tired of staring at the battered leather jacket lying across the gurney. He hadn't been able to make himself bury it with the girl, and now it lay there, mocking him for his weakness, his inability to keep his life from falling apart. He pulled another stitch closed.

* * *

He screamed, hurling a tray of medical equipment across the room. The tray shattered on impact, and the equipment, an assortment of scalpels, forceps, stitching needles, fell to the ground, joining the equipment and tools that he had already thrown about in his madness. He moved toward his art supplies, pulse throbbing in his ears, rage covering up his helplessness. The jacket lay in its original position on the gurney. He avoided looking at it when he turned.

* * *

The blood trail was faint, only a few droplets here and there, but it was enough for someone with experience to track. The larger smears, where the target had fallen to his knees, only made the job easier. Mirrored sunglasses flashed in the half-light of the maze, as the dark man made his way slowly through the buildings, following the barely visible path. The other Turk followed, trusting his skills to take them where they needed to go.

* * *

He sat in a stupor, staring at the corner that housed Alyse's grave. A painting covered the walls, a bloody child angel, copper curls blowing in a nonexistent wind. A cheerful smile contrasted tear-stained cheeks, and velvety white wings were broken and tattered. The paint was wet, he could tell by the way the light gleamed across it, and his fingers were stained from it. He didn't remember painting it, any more than he remembered flinging his medical equipment across the room. He was just so damned tired…

He turned away from the corner, emotionally beat down and physically exhausted. He had lost part of himself, he knew, but he didn't have the energy to pull himself together. Sim had called the slums, the life of the Reaper, ruins, and Reno believed it. '_Everything is ruins now…_' His eyes fell upon his battered old piano, and he pulled himself towards it, mind still numb as he sat on the bench and pressed fingers to the keys.

* * *

The building they stopped in front of had obviously once been an office of some kind, but the blood trail led there unerringly, and so it must have been the right place. They paused, looking up at it, before glancing at each other and nodding. He was hurt, and possibly insane. They needed to get him before he did anything rash.

The first notes of a piano floated out as they stepped up to the door and they stopped again, listening.

_I woke up today  
Expecting to find all that I sought  
And climb the mountains of the life I bought  
Finally I'm at the top of every hierarchy  
Unfortunately there is no one left  
But me…_

Reno's fingers danced along the keys, the haunting melody tearing itself up from his soul. He cried again, playing on.

…_I woke up today  
To a world that's ground to dust, dirt and stone  
I'm the king upon this withering throne  
I ruled every forest, every mountain, every sea  
Now there're but ruins left to rule for me…_

The Turks were awestruck by the song pouring out of the building, and they couldn't bring themselves to break it, choosing to remain outside rather than barge in and interrupt him. His grief tore at them.

…_Just this relentless time  
That calls us all on  
But..._

_I'm never crossing that line  
Leaving this world behind  
I will stay on my own  
On this bloodstained throne  
I rule the ruins and wrecks  
And the dust, dirt and stone  
I rule rage rod and rattling of bones…_

His voice was lonely, heartbroken. He sang like he could make the world hear.

_…I am on my own  
I am all alone  
Everything is gone  
Stuck forever here  
Already cold…_

…I'm never crossing that line  
Leaving this world behind  
I will stay on my own  
On this bloodstained throne  
I rule the ruins and wrecks  
And the dirt and the dust and the stone  
I'm the ruler of rage rod and rust  
And the rattling of bones

His voice rose, fury overtaking the grief for a brief time, and he practically screamed his words.

_Ruler of ruin,_

_Broken now,_

_I rule the ruins…_

_Rule the rust, and the rage, and the rain, and the dust,_

_When the stone, when the bone, and the rattling of bones…_

_I rule the ruins…_

_I rule the ruins…_

_When the dust, when the dirt, when the rust, when the rage, and the rod,_

_I rule the ruins…_

His voice and piano trailed off into sobs, and the Turks outside shuffled uneasily, before turning and walking away. They knew where he lived now; they could always come back later… Inside the quiet lab, he cried, curled up on the bench. He was just so tired…of everything.

* * *

It was nearly 0100 when the knock came on the door. The man glared at his clock, swearing at whoever was waking him up, and pulled a pair of pants on. He didn't bother with a shirt, or with fixing his hair. He was tired, he looked like hell, and he wanted whoever was outside on his porch to _know_ that he'd been _sleeping_, dammit, and who the _fuck_ did they think they were, waking him up at such an ungodly hour? He flung the door open, and it almost swung back and hit him in his shock.

The figure before him looked like he hadn't slept in days. His hair was disheveled, clothing wrinkled. It was the blood that shocked him though, and the bandages. One had slipped a little, and he could see stitches beneath it, closing up what looked like a knife wound. The person standing on the porch smiled half-heartedly, and gave a tired wave.

"Hey dad…"

* * *

A long crying session and a hot shower later, and Reno was curled up on his old bed, staring at the wall. The bedroom had been cleaned since he was last there; no blood or… other bodily fluids… marred any of the surfaces. There weren't even any stains on his old sheets. He was confused, wondering if his father had truly expected him to return one day, and at the same time comforted, surrounded by the only remains of his childhood. It hadn't been an _easy_ childhood, to be sure, but it was _his_, and predictable, and… safe. In spite of everything that had happened to him in this home, it still spelled security for him, maybe even love, and it didn't take him long to finally relax into slumber.

Gentle hands reached out to tuck him in, brushing some stray hairs out of his face. He didn't wake, even as his father placed a tender kiss on his forehead before walking out of the room, leaving the door open a crack to let the light in. James never had liked sleeping in the dark.

* * *

Reno awoke before 0600, despite how late he'd arrived. He lay in bed for a moment, listening, before he heard the sounds of someone moving through the kitchen. '_That explains it._' He swung his feet out of bed, stretching. His clothes were folded on his desk, and he assumed that his dad must have tossed them in the wash while he took a shower before. Stripping out of his dad's old shirt and boxers, he pulled his own clothes on before running a hand through his hair, tying it back without really caring that it wasn't brushed.

He walked into the kitchen to the smell of coffee, unsurprised to see that there wasn't any breakfast. He snagged a cup of coffee before his dad drank it all, and sat down at the table. Frankly, he would have been disturbed if there _had_ been breakfast; his dad was being nice and all, probably because he'd come home after nearly five years covered in blood, but breakfast would have been a little over the top. He probably would have run out the door, and to hell with the coffee. A lighter was set on the table in front of him.

"James." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Even when James had been his _name_, everyone had called him Jimmy. Everyone, that is, but his father. His dad continued. "I've been thinking about all you told me last night, and I think it's time to give you this." Reno's attention was drawn back to the lighter, and he tensed suddenly, recognizing it.

* * *

"_You're __**nothing**__, James! All these pictures, this __**music**__, give it __**up**__. You're nothing but a filthy little slum rat, just like everyone __**else**__ down here. That's your place in life, that's all your place will ever be. Empty dreams and pretty pictures will never change that. __**Don't fucking cry!**__"_

_The sheaf of papers, covered in music notes and drawing of a child's dreams of a world where the sun shone, burned in his fathers hands, ignited by the simple flick of a silver lighter._

"_Dreams get you __**nowhere**__."_

* * *

His eyes narrowed, and he glared up at his father. "Gee, _thanks_ pops… just what I've always wanted." The sarcasm was acidic enough to melt paint.

His dad just smiled. "Good, you remember what I told you that day then. Dreams won't ever get you anywhere, James." Reno scowled and started to look away, but his chin was caught in a strong grip, forcing him to look back at his father. "Dreams get you _nowhere_, but that doesn't mean that hard work _won't_. Look at you! You think most people could do what you've done? You've survived and _excelled_ at a life that would _kill_ most people, and drive the rest _insane_. I didn't burn that shit to tell you not to _dream_, I burned it to teach you to go _beyond_ the dreams." His voice rose, and Reno stared. He'd never really seen his dad _rant_ like this; it was actually kind of entertaining. Apparently, his dad actually _cared_ that someone else had hurt him.

'_Lucky for Sim that I've already killed him… I'm not sure what could be worse than being skinned alive, but I think Dad could find a way to make him beg for that._' It was incredible how much better that thought made him feel, and he was trying not to laugh by the time his dad finished. His mirth didn't go by unnoticed, and he was fixed with a scowl.

"Do you have your knife?" He nodded. "Your gun?" He nodded again. "Good. Take that lighter, and get the fuck out of my house, boy. I don't want to see you here again."

Reno grinned. "You're not going to cook me breakfast?" He dodged the coffee cup that was aimed at his head and bolted for the door, laughing. Behind him, his dad shook his head, the tiniest of smiles twitching on his face before he went to clean up the broken ceramic mug.

* * *

The office in the Hideout was still covered in blood, Sim's body tied down to the desk by the climbing line out of his drawer. Reno grimaced, turning away from the sight to dig through the pockets of Sim's clothes. Coming up with a cell phone, he turned and left, ignoring Tanner's corpse on his way out.

Once outside the building, he flipped the phone open, scrolling through the recent calls log to find a familiar number. '_Stupid bastard is gonna get what's coming to him, now…_'

It didn't take him long to make his way to the edge of Sector 3, where the Wutaiian and his men were still encamped in their "temporary" building. Apparently, nobody had told them that the Lich, along with Sim and Tanner, had been destroyed, and they were still waiting on the blonde to finish the job. He smirked, pulling a remote detonator out of his pocket, peering through a scope out at the building from his vantage point: the roof of a taller building a few blocks away. He dialed the number on Sim's phone, watching the Wutaiian through the window that the man was so conveniently sitting by. There were reasons why Reno's office had been an interior room with no windows… The Wutaiian answered the phone.

"It's about damned time! There are rumors everywhere about that damned Reaper of yours! I was starting to think you weren't going to follow through!"

Reno smirked. "Did you _really_ think that Sim was the _only_ one who knew you were here before you contacted me? I knew about your arrival an hour after you got here." Sonny's connections were useful.

The Wutaiian spluttered. "You…who…_how?_"

Reno merely chuckled. "The Reaper." The Wutaiian's face paled in the image from the scope. "Just wanted to say 'bye'. You really should have left, you know. Now, your 72 hours are up." He closed the phone, watching the Wutaiian panic for a moment before stepping away from the tripod-mounted scope. He flipped open the cover on the detonator with a flourish, even though nobody was there to see, and pressed the button.

All was silent for a moment, and then the Wutaiian's building exploded at the foundation, the fires billowing up through the building before the whole thing collapsed, reducing it into a pile of smoldering rubble.

'_I rule the ruins…_'

Reno tossed the spent detonator, and the phone, off the roof of the building.

* * *

When he got back to Hole in the Wall, Dot-Head and Sunglass-Guy were waiting for him. He tensed instinctively, wondering how long they'd known about his home, or if they'd followed him last night. Dot-Head stepped forward, hands spread in a nonthreatening gesture. "James Stanton, the Third. Reno. Reaper… We would like to speak with you."

* * *

**A/N: **This chapter took me longer to write than I expected, and for that I'm sorry. Because of it, you won't get another chapter for a very long time (unless I have a writing spasm of some kind tonight or tomorrow, in which case you may get lucky). I'm going to be gone for two months, doing training for Army ROTC, so I won't be able to work on this (for a month I won't have any computer access at all, and the second month access will be very limited, if I have any at all). And so, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, because now you have to wait to see what Tseng has to say ;)

A note about Reno reseating his dislocated shoulder: I don't know if it's actually possible to do it like that or not. Maybe if you smashed up against the wall at just the right angle, with just enough force… but it would probably hurt like hell, and damage your shoulder and nerves a bit. In short, don't try this at home :p Unless you're about to die or you're in the middle of a mass-murdering rampage and don't have time to go to a doctor. Then I suggest you either take the pain and save yourself or… seek professional help :p Which Reno is in dire need of, if you ask my opinion…

Aaanyway… reviews!

**Yourmomontoast:** omg doesn't even begin to describe the horrible two days Reno just had shakes head poor kid…

**Etrixan:** yes, indeed he did. And yeah, he did try taking a bit of control, although Reno was a little obstinate when it came to jobs and such. Lucky for him…

**Mistbender:** lol, I've called Tseng Dot-Head in my mind for a while now too XD Wait till Tseng finds out about it, lol (he actually won't for quite a while, and it'll wind up being Rude who spills the beans about it, hehe… Reno will still call him Dot-Head behind his back though, even when he finds out his real name :p)

Aaaand… that's all, folks :) reviews appreciated as always, and feel free to point out typos or gaping plot holes :)


	9. Int 1 A New Invitation

**Warnings: **Incredibly short filler chapter, and Reno being his usual foul-mouthed self.

* * *

_Interlude – A New Invitation_

* * *

Reno didn't particularly give a fuck that anyone wanted to talk to him. He was also less than impressed by their knowledge of his names. He wasn't particularly pleased that they were standing outside his home, but that didn't stop him from flipping them off, walking inside, and slamming the door in their faces, either. The corner of "Sunglass-Guy's" mouth twitched, the only indication that he might be amused by the situation. The other Turk sighed. _'This is going to be a long day…_'

Reno wasn't _really_ surprised to hear a knock on the door a moment later. They were Turks after all, and not likely to give up that easily. He was, admittedly, a little surprised that they didn't just walk in when he ignored the knock, and he smirked, picturing them standing out there trading confused looks, wondering what to do now. The knock came again, and he chuckled, passing by the Lab and sealing the door without pausing to glance inside.

Wandering into the kitchen, he rolled his eyes at the third knock, wondering if they were really going to stand out there all day.

* * *

Tseng sighed again, glancing over at Rude. The bald man shrugged slightly, and Tseng nodded, turning and opening the door.

The interior of the building was what Tseng would have expected from a well-built house on the Upper Plate: comfortably furnished, spacious rooms, warm earth tones and murals adorning the walls. He followed the sounds of clinking glasses, noticing an airsealed door to his right as he moved further into the building. The keypad to the left of the door was streaked with blood. He made a mental note to investigate it some day, and continued on, quickly finding himself in a kitchen.

Rude followed a few steps behind, taking more time to observe the rooms and take mental notes. The walls were painted in mostly browns and deep reds, and the furniture appeared to be made of dark cherry wood. Reno clearly hadn't spared expenses when putting his home together. The walls that had murals on them had clearly been painted by the same person, and Rude suspected that Reno's genius in business extended to genius in other areas as well. The music last night had been proof enough of that, really. Rude was a little surprised to see the blood-smeared keypad. All other traces of blood on the floor had been cleaned away; he couldn't come up with a good reason why Reno wouldn't clean the pad as well. Inspecting it a little more closely, Rude decided that it wouldn't be possible to figure out the code from the blood smears; all of the numbers were coated, as though Reno had wiped his hand across them.

Shrugging, knowing that Tseng would come up with some high-tech device to crack the code, Rude continued on, stepping into the kitchen to find Tseng and Reno in an impromptu staring match.

* * *

Reno could tell that Dot-Head wasn't impressed by the bottle of gin in his hands, and he snickered internally. '_Guy's probably some kind of tight-assed prude, bet he never drinks… Sure as hell not before breakfast._'

Tseng, for his part, wondered if Reno was drinking because of recent events, or if he always drank this early in the day. '_Perfect… I'm probably trying to recruit an alcoholic._'

Rude pulled the bottle from Reno's hand, effectively destroying the staring match, pissing Reno off, and reminding Tseng that he was here on business, all in one go.

"What the _fuck_, yo?!" Reno was practically spluttering. He had been so focused on silently mocking Dot-Head that he hadn't even _noticed_ Sunglass-Guy walk in, and nobody had _ever_ snatched a bottle out of his hand like that before. Was this guy _suicidal_?

Rude shrugged, setting the bottle down on the counter and indicating the glass in Reno's hand as though to say, 'Hey, at least I left you that.' Reno wasn't mollified in the least, and glared at Rude even as he tossed back the contents of the glass. Tseng cleared his throat, hoping to interrupt the brewing conflict before Reno had the chance to hurl the glass at Rude's head, and spoke.

"As I said, we would like to speak with you."

Reno rolled his eyes, deciding to ignore Rude, and slouched against the pantry behind him. "So, what's your point? Talk, talk away. Gonna sit here and bitch about me getting rid of some of the Slum's finest dirtbags?"

Tseng ignored his petulant outburst, and pulled an envelope out of his pocket. "I have a proposition for you."

"I don't sleep with people for money, sorry."

Tseng stared. Reno blinked back at him. Rude made a good impression of a silent, unbreathing statue in the background. Tseng glanced down at the envelope, processed what Reno had just said, and elected to ignore him again. "As I was saying, I have a proposition for you. An invitation, of sorts."

Reno tensed visibly, an action not lost on either Turk, and narrowed his eyes, glancing briefly at the envelope before giving Tseng a hard look. "You have two minutes to talk and get the fuck out. I'd suggest using those two minutes to apologize for having the balls to hand me an invite in a fucking envelope. Does is have an **R** stamped on the front too?" He had rocked forward, balancing on the balls of his feet, and there was no doubt in Tseng's mind that he was serious about the two minute deadline. He continued on anyway, appearing unperturbed by Reno's behavior.

"The Turks are always looking for new members to fill the ranks. Some people join by choice, some are forced in by circumstance, others are recruited. Age and experience usually determine whether a new member goes through the regular period of training or is initiated as a full member immediately. We have never had someone from below the Plate go through the usual training regime, which would make you the first."

Reno eyed Tseng warily as he gave a brief overview of Turk training, pay, and benefits. A little less than a minute had passed when he paused, and Reno jumped in. "I don't need your pay or benefits. I sure as shit don't need to spend a couple of years taking _classes_. What the hell makes you think you have anything to offer that would make me join you?"

Tseng observed him calmly, well aware that his time period was almost up. He considered his words carefully, studying Reno to see what effect they would have before speaking. "We can offer you a home."

Reno didn't say anything to that, regarding Tseng with a cold gaze, and Tseng decided that it was time to leave. He only had a handful of seconds remaining anyway. "You have until noon the day after tomorrow to report in. If you haven't reported at that time, this opportunity is closed to you forever. I will not bother making the offer again. The envelope contains a pass to the Upper Plate, and instructions on where to go." He left the envelope on the small table, resting up against Reno's empty glass, and left, Rude following closely behind. Reno stared down at the envelope, hardly noticing when the door closed behind the two Turks. The envelope had a **T** printed on the front.

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, so this wasn't the chapter I was planning on it being, and I apologize. The next chapter will start out with his "response" to Tseng's invitation (poor Reno, Tseng doesn't even know that that's the same format the invite to the Bloodletting came in…), and we'll finally get Reno above the Plate, and into some sunshine for the first time in his life (hope he's got sunblock, lol).

**Mistbender:** How did you dislocate your knees? O.o Ouch :(

**Gismo:** Thanks for the comments :) This one's not very long, but hopefully it tides people over until I have the real next chapter planned out and typed :p

**jennie300303:** Thanks for the well-wishes :) It was actually kind of boring for the most part, but it wasn't all bad I guess… Reno's luck is slowly (_sloooowly_) starting to turn, although he has quite a few more roadblocks to get through before he's in the clear. He did indeed enjoy blowing up the Wutaiian though. Crazy pyro… ;)

**tala-fangirl:** lol, thanks :) Hopefully I can get the next actual chapter out soon, hehe.

**Etrixan:** hehe, not the end yet ;) Just the end of a certain part of his life. Now we get to start with his life as a Turk trainee :P Let's see how well he deals with having to sit in a classroom…heh.


	10. Ch 8 Pass

**Warnings:** Fluffy kittens with killer claws, and not much else :p

* * *

_Chapter Eight - Pass_

* * *

The elevator ground to a halt, a cold, mechanical voice announcing that "You have reached the Upper Plate. Please have your pass or government identification ready for inspection." A tired roll of the eyes and flick of a finger greeted the recording's statement, and the elevator's lone passenger straightened up, stretching slowly and grabbing his bags with one hand. He pulled a pass out of his pocket with the other, wondering if the guard outside the elevator would be able to tell that it was forged. The doors grated open, sounding as though the elevator hadn't been used for years.

The guard looked up, taking in the red hair, neat clothing, and dark duffel bags with one bored look before holding out a hand. "Pass or identification." Reno handed him the pass, resisting the urge to kick him in the face instead, and waited while the guard scanned the small card. "Renault Ryker?" Reno nodded, and the guard narrowed his eyes, looking back down at the pass. "19?" Reno rolled his eyes this time, nodding again, and the guard grumbled to himself, scanning over the card one more time. "Well… it looks like this is in order…" He huffed, irritated that he had to let some good-for-nothing slum dweller onto the Upper Plate, and handed the card back, stepping aside to let Reno pass.

Sticking the card back in his pocket, Reno hefted his bags and walked out of the elevator station, not even bothering to look at the guard as he passed by. He even waited until he turned a corner before letting the smirk show on his face. '_Too easy._' Now that he knew he could forge a pass, he'd have ten of them by the end of the week, all with a different name and a different reason for him being on the Upper Plate. He probably wouldn't ever _need_ any of them, but it never hurt to have back-ups, just in case.

The streets of Upper Midgar were quiet, and Reno walked slowly, scanning his surroundings. The elevator had dropped him off in some kind of industrial district, and warehouses and tall office buildings lined the streets. It reminded him eerily of Sector 4, except these buildings were intact, and not abandoned. No dust swirled through the air – the streets were damp, almost slick – but the light quality was much the same as it was below the Plate. The only difference here was that a bank of low-lying clouds provided the dim grayness, not the looming monolith of the Upper Plate. Reno stared at those clouds a little while, wondering what caused them, why they stayed above the city. He could smell the dampness in the air, and wondered if the clouds were the reason the streets were wet. The only time the streets were wet below the Plate was if a pipe or a drain somewhere on the Upper Plate was leaking.

Deciding that he'd find out about the clouds when he got to the Turk Training Center, he let his eyes fall back down to the streets in front of him, making his silent way through the dim maze. The instructions on where to go, as well as the original pass that Dot-Head had given to him, were still in their envelope, tucked away in one of his pockets. He had the directions memorized, and didn't bother pulling the envelope out. He'd worry about which pass to use when he got to the guard shack.

* * *

Voices echoed off the walls, the over-sized gym filled with teenagers of varying ages and backgrounds, all trying to have their opinions heard. A few dozen Turks stood along the walls, talking to each other quietly, observing and analyzing the group of teenagers as they waited. A clock on the wall read 1025.

"Why, _exactly_, are we _actually_ waiting until noon to start the official training?" The question seemed to sum up most of the other teens' agitation, and many who were sitting around the loud brunette nodded in agreement. "I mean, we're seriously waiting for _one_ person? This is probably the first time in _history_ that training has _actually_ started on time, instead of early. What the hell is so special about this _one_ guy that _we_ all have to wait on _him_?"

A girl piped up. "Is _that_ why we're waiting? I was wondering…" The original speaker nodded.

"Yeah. See, the way this usually works is, the "draftees" show up retardedly early – well, a lot of them are in jail or something anyway, so they don't really have a choice. The volunteers and recruits show up a couple days early, _like we're supposed to_, for inprocessing. Once everyone who's expected to be here is, well, _here_, they go ahead and start the intro classes. If any idiot who wants to be here shows up after that, they go through a selection screening to see if the Turks want to bother catching him up, or if they want to send him home and make him try again next selection. They never actually _wait_ to start the intro classes! So, now all of a sudden they have a recruit who couldn't be bothered to show up a couple days early like he was supposed to, and the rest of us are basically screwed because of it." He crossed his arms, scowling, and leaned back in his chair.

"I heard he's from below the Plate," a quiet voice murmured. A shocked silence was quickly followed by a roar of outrage. They were being forced to wait on some _slum rat?_ Had the senior Turks lost their minds? A round of vicious rumors quickly followed this outburst, making hypotheses on the slum rat's education, literacy (or illiteracy, as many prophesied), even the way he probably looked. The Turks looked on in silence, calmly building their own evaluations of the trainees, noting who took part in the discussions, who sat there and nodded, attaching themselves to the "powerful", and who looked on in silence or disgust before turning away. This was always the best sort of environment for cataloguing the trainees.

* * *

Tseng watched the events in the gym from a security booth, not needing audio to guess what the outrage was about and who was being discussed. As expected, Reno was causing trouble before he'd even arrived.

"Think they'll learn to give him a chance?" He glanced over at Elena, thinking a moment before he responded.

"I doubt it. Those who aren't partaking in the discussion might, but the rest have already made up their minds. He will have to deal with enemies."

"That doesn't seem like much of a "home" for him…"

Tseng sighed. "I expect most of those in the gym to fail out. Very few of the opinionated ones will pass, simply because they aren't open enough to accept their training. The home, the family, isn't the Training Center, it's the Turks."

"Will he know the difference?"

Tseng frowned; he didn't know. A knock sounded on the door before he could answer her. "Enter."

"Sir, the boy's here. Rude is escorting him to meet with Albany right now." Tseng nodded, but the Turk hesitated, then continued. "Sir… the guard at the gate didn't know any better, but the boy entered the grounds using a fake pass. It had a different name and age on it." Elena covered her mouth, hiding an amused smile.

Tseng sighed before dismissing the man. A fake pass… '_First an alcoholic, now a forger. I hope this boy isn't more trouble than he's worth…_' Elena giggled at the look on his face.

* * *

Reno spent the majority of the walk through the Training Center glaring at Rude out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't forgiven the silent man for taking away his bottle, and when the gate guard had introduced him as "Rude", Reno couldn't agree more. '_What an asshole…_' When Rude took Reno's pass from the guard, and saw the name on it, he had smacked Reno on the side of the head before dragging him into the complex, which, as far as Reno was concerned, was an invitation to war. He just had to figure out how to make the guy actually _look_ at him, which was difficult at best. Rude had stolidly ignored him, not even playing tour guide and pointing out any buildings. They were now walking down a blindingly white hallway lined with unmarked doors, and Reno was beginning to think that Rude was going to win by the simple fact that he wasn't giving Reno any opportunity to fight. It was almost depressing.

Rude stopped ('_Finally…_') and knocked on a door at the very end of the hallway. The door swung open instantly, and an irritable man peered down at Reno, scowling. His face reminded Reno vaguely of a rat, with beady eyes and small, sharp features, and he was calling the man "Ratty" even as the man introduced himself as Albany.

"I have the misfortune of having to watch over all of you brats while you're here at the Training Center." His voice was a high-pitched nasal whine that made Reno cringe internally. "While you're staying here in the dormitory, you will follow some simple rules. Simple, and you and the rest of the worthless cretins staying here will _still_ find a way to break them, and claim it was an accident." He sniffed before continuing. "You will not own any keys while you're here. Locks, fine, but no keys. You will not make a drunken nuisance of yourself while you remain here." His tone indicated that he doubted Reno would remain here very long. "You will not make loud noises between the hours of 2200 and 0600. You will not invade the privacy of my room. That's _this_ room, in case you're too dense to figure that one out. You will keep your room clean at all times. The Turks reserve the right to conduct room inspections at any time. You will not allow food or anything else to _rot_ in your room. You will follow all orders given to you by myself or any other Turk. Do you have any questions?"

Reno stared, and wondered if he'd get in trouble for asking when the last time was that Albany had gotten laid. Deciding against the question, he shook his head.

Albany sniffed again. "Of course you don't. Now, I don't have the time to show you little scurrying rodents around to your rooms," Reno almost laughed out loud to hear Albany call someone _else_ a rodent, "so Rude will show you where you'll be staying. I _expect_ that there won't be any problems with you." His voice made it clear that he expected quite the opposite, and Reno made sure to grace him with a broad smirk and a flippant wave before Rude led him away again.

"I _expect_ that he's gonna hate me before the week is out." Reno wasn't entirely sure, but he thought he may have seen the corner of Rude's mouth twitch in response.

* * *

Rude spoke for the first time when he dropped Reno off at his room. "You have about an hour to settle in before you need to be at the gym." He gave Reno some quick directions to get to the gym and left, clearly uncomfortable with having to string more than three words together in a sentence. Reno shook his head and let himself into his room, hauling his bags in after him.

The room was small, only 10' by 12', and was just big enough to fit a twin-sized bed, dresser, bookshelf, and mini-fridge. The walls were as white as the hallway outside, and Reno decided immediately to repaint it the first chance he got. Dropping his bags on the bed, he quickly pulled out the bedclothes that Tseng's instructions had said he'd need, pleased that he could at least add _some_ color to the room. He then put away his clothes, stashed what few books he owned on the shelves, and flopped down onto the bed. He hadn't brought a whole lot with him, since he'd wanted to see what he was really going to _need_ before carrying it all up, so now he had nothing to do, and a while before he needed to be at the gym.

Stretching a little bit, his eyes fell on the fridge, and he rolled over to open it, more out of boredom than curiosity; he didn't really expect to find anything. He almost fell off the bed when he was met with the sight of a bottle of gin, full and unopened. Pulling it out, he stared at the label, surprised to see that it was the same brand he'd been drinking when Rude had snatched the bottle out of his hand the other day. Rude… '_Maybe __**that's**__ why he left in such a hurry._' Reno smiled, setting the bottle carefully back in its place.

* * *

The clock on the wall read 1159 when the large double-doors to the gym opened. The mob of trainees silenced immediately, as every head turned to look at the newcomer. Most of them were surprised by what they saw.

Reno was pale compared to most of them, which they had all expected, but instead of being sickly-looking, his skin was a smooth cream color, contrasting healthily with his hair, which he had actually taken the time to wash and brush before coming to the Upper Plate. His clothing was also different than what they'd expected and, to be fair, was different than what he usually wore. He had abandoned his usual wife-beater and torn cargo pants (although he'd packed them and now had them stowed in his dresser), and had opted for clothing that was virtually new, un-torn and un-stained: Black military fatigues and a black, form-fitting turtleneck. His boots were his usual battered combat boots, but he'd cleaned and darkened them with black shoe polish (although he hadn't actually shined them), so they contributed easily to his overall appearance.

Combined with his confident manner of carrying himself, and the amused half-smile he usually wore, all of this conspired to give him the appearance of a super model. Not _exactly_ the image of a scrawny, filthy slum rat that people were expecting. All of it, of course, intentional…hence the reason for why he was currently smirking. He knew when people were talking about him, and the complete silence in the room was a dead giveaway. Glancing over them, quickly picking out the ones who had been at the center of the discussion and identifying those who had probably kept out of it, he picked a spot against the wall – well away from where any of the Turks were standing – and slouched there, waiting for the clock to strike noon.

Having entered the building with only a minute to spare, he didn't have long to wait. The clock reached 1200, and the doors opened again, admitting Tseng, precisely on time. '_There's a real shocker…_' Tseng was flanked by Rude and a blonde woman that Reno hadn't met yet, who he promptly nicknamed Kitten. She just had that sweet, innocent look about her… He figured she could probably kill him with a look if she felt like it, since most innocent-looking women were like that, but since he never planned on calling her Kitten to her face…

Tseng began to speak, and Reno focused, pushing the image of fluffy kittens with killer claws out of his mind. "Today begins the first official day of your training to become Turks. Most of you will not make it. Some of you," he paused, letting his cold gaze travel around the room, "have already been blacklisted as probable failures." There was an uneasy shifting throughout the room at that. The Turks, of course, took careful note of those who weren't bothered by the statement. Those who happened to be looking his way made special note of the fact that Reno smirked and rolled his eyes. Tseng continued, "This is not said to discourage you. You have the potential to prove us wrong. It doesn't happen often, but it's not unheard of. We expect a lot from all of you, and we do not expect to be let down." Few of the trainees caught this for the hidden warning that it really was, and most of those who caught it were those who hadn't been unnerved by his earlier statement. This, too, was made note of.

Tseng's speech wasn't long, so far as introductory speeches go. He informed them all that they had three months in which to fail without fear of reprisal; if they failed out after that, they would be "terminated". Nobody had to ask what he meant by that. Additionally, after the Deadline had passed, they could not leave of their own volition. They would be given a three day grace period to come to their senses and return; after that, they would be hunted down. Most of the trainees took that to mean that the Turks would start looking for them after three days; Reno took that to mean that the Turks would be watching you from the instant you left, and would be in place and waiting for the order to kill by the time the three day mark was up. Anything else would be an inefficient waste of time, after all, and he got the feeling that Tseng was nothing if not frighteningly efficient.

Tseng concluded his speech with a final set of instructions: "Most of you have already completed inprocessing, and may retire to your rooms or the common areas for the remainder of the day. For those of you who arrived too late to inprocess," and every eye turned to Reno, "you will report to me after I release you. Dismissed."

The trainees took a while to vacate the room, making plenty of noise as they left. The scraping of chairs and loud chatter grated on Reno's nerves, and he was glad when they were finally gone. The silence they left behind was a blessing, and he noted that the Turks scattered throughout the room made no noise when they crossed over to stand by Tseng. He was quick on their heels, making as little noise as they had, and reached them in time to hear Tseng order them to leave reports with their observations and analyses on his desk. '_Figures that they start analyzing us before we're even 'officially' trainees… no wonder they've pegged the people they expect to fail already._'

Tseng turned to him, and Reno quickly found himself the center of attention again. He resisted the urge to fidget, and balanced on the balls of his feet again, ready to fight or flee as he saw fit. Having the undivided attention of 30-odd seasoned Turks was a bit different than being stared at by a bunch of untrained teenagers. Tseng gave no indication of noticing his tense posture, although Reno was sure there would be several notes about it in the reports, and began speaking again. "Rude will guide you through inprocessing today. It usually takes trainees approximately two days to complete the paperwork and medical exams, but I expect that you'll have no trouble finishing it today, especially since you won't have to wait in line. You will be given rules on things such as uniform wear and attendance policies as you receive all of your paperwork. Do you have any questions for me at this time?"

Reno wasn't sure if the question was actually looking for an answer or was just a formality, but he capitalized on it anyway. "Is Rude my official babysitter?" Tseng stared, resisting the urge to bury his face in his hands, and didn't answer.

"Do you have any _other_ questions?" Reno grinned, recognizing an evasion when he saw one ('_Rude __**definitely **__got screwed into babysitting me._') and asked his next question. "What's the policy on drinking in the dorms?"

Tseng wanted to scream. Several of the other Turks were trying not to laugh, Elena included. "Didn't Albany talk about that with you already?" His growl was enough to indicate to everyone that he was annoyed, and most people would have stopped at that point. Reno had never been one for staying on his side of the line, and rolled ahead.

"I will not make a drunken nuisance of myself while I remain here." His voice was perfectly even, without any sort of emotion or inflection, and Tseng fought the desire to leave.

"You will _also_ not be drunk while on duty, or while hung over. Alcohol on your breath during classes is punishable in any way your instructors see fit." He paused, clearly regretting what he was about to say, and continued, sounding pained to do so. "Any other questions?" Reno had a mischievous glint in his eyes that Tseng found ominous, but he recognized when he'd worn out his welcome, and shook his head. Tseng sighed in relief and nodded at Rude, who took Reno by the arm and steered him out of the gym.

The other Turks, many still trying not to laugh, turned to Tseng. "Do you want that encounter included in the reports, Sir?" Tseng sighed again and nodded, giving a brief wave of his hand in dismissal. He should have known better than to ask if Reno had questions…

* * *

**A/N:** Ok, I know in-game Elena is a new Turk, Vincent has been in a coffin 30 years, and Cissnei is Before Crisis/Crisis Core, but… that's part of the reason I'm calling this AU :P And yeah, we're going to see Vincent and Cissnei in this story too :)

Also, look for a picture of Reno all spiffied-up soon ;) I can't post one yet, because I'm still at Ft. Benning and don't have access to a scanner, but I should be able to get one up soon as I get home in a week.

Aaand… was originally going to make this longer, but this seems like a good stopping point, and the next chapter I can talk about Reno's first week as a trainee, and start going into some of his escapades and battles with the other trainees.

**xNai-chanx:** He's still going to have his little "war" with Rude, but it'll be a lot more good-natured now that Rude's appeased him by buying him a new bottle :)

**Mistbender:** Three times? Yeowch . Glad I made your day happy :) Thanks for all of the reviews!

And as usual, please review, and feel free to point out typos, plot holes, etc etc.


	11. Ch 9 Blacklisted

**Warnings: **Reno sneaks around, and kicks Sephiroth in the balls. Little bit of language.

* * *

_Chapter Nine - Blacklisted_

* * *

"_Loud. Arrogant. Intelligent… possibly brilliant. Most likely too smart for his own good. Doesn't rattle easily, and his intelligence and arrogance combined make it likely that we will not be able to control him. Blacklist advised."_

"_Showy, likes to make an Entrance. Cocky and over-confident, and pays too close attention to everything for comfort. Possibility of using blackmail or treason as a means to climb the ladder. Uncontrollable. Blacklist advised."_

"_Conceited little bastard… No sense of respect or timeliness. No regard for authority. Loose cannon. Blacklist advised."_

"_Over-confident, rude. Likely to break quickly under pressure. Blacklist advised."_

* * *

Reno quickly learned that he was not well-liked by most of the Turks, and he was barely tolerated (at best) by the other Trainees. Most of the Turks used him as a handy target for verbal abuse. The rest largely ignored him. The Trainees took their cues from their Turk instructors, and barraged him with insults at every opportunity, cold-shouldering him when he simply laughed at their insults. He ignored them in turn, and to all outward appearances, being on the "Training Center Shit List" didn't bother him in the least.

On the inside, the constant insults ate at him, degrading his morale and self-esteem at an exponential rate. He hadn't been well-liked by everyone in the slums. Many people had downright hated him, and plenty had tried to kill him. He hadn't been friendless, however, and he had been comfortable enough in his surroundings to truly not care about what his enemies thought of him. Here, he was out of his depth. He had lived in the static half-light of the slums his entire life, and living on the Upper Plate was a culture shock to him. The sunlight hurt his eyes and burned his skin. The rain and wind confused him, and he was laughed at when he asked what the stars were made out of. The clean streets and Perfect People, with their plastic surgery faces and their designer clothes that reeked of money, baffled and angered him all at once. The people in the slums were, for the most part, born there, and had no chance at any other life. These people were born into the sun, into their money, and treated those in the slums as though they were worthless, as though they didn't work, didn't need, didn't feel. Treated them as though they were nothing. The people around Reno, Turks and Trainees alike, made sure to treat him like that every second of every day. Outwardly, he smirked and laughed it off. Inwardly, he cried.

He spent his first two weeks at the Training Center struggling to keep his feet under him, to get his bearings in the new world he'd found himself in. The constant hate and abuse threatened to wash him away, and the new life and technology he was faced with only added insult to the injury. He didn't even know how to turn on a computer.

Two weeks, three days, and countless humiliating lessons in learning later, he could work a computer better than 95 percent of the other trainees, and had found the key to all the knowledge he desired. The library.

He found the library late one night, wandering the grounds after curfew. After the first week, he had begun sneaking out at night to memorize the layout of the Training Center, turning it into a game to avoid the various sentries and night watchmen scattered about. He hadn't found many places of interest yet, although he did now know the location of every bathroom and broom closet in the main area of the Training Center. When he found the squat grey building tucked away in the maze of storage units and supply buildings, he hadn't expected anything spectacular. The uniform supply building, if he was lucky. The sight of books, lining walls and shelves from floor to ceiling, made him stare, awestruck. It was several minutes before he realized he was standing in the open doorway with his mouth hanging open, and he stepped inside.

The library held the answers to nearly every question he had, and the answers to many questions he hadn't even thought of yet. He wandered the shelves, tracing a finger down the spines of books, the scent of ink and leather lulling him, calling him. History. Mathematics. Linguistics. Art. The library housed books on every subject he could think of. All he had to do now to learn was to read. The first book he pulled off a shelf and opened was a book titled _Clouds_.

* * *

The discovery of the library marked a turning point in Reno's life. He was no longer restricted to knowledge taught in classes, nor to the pace the classes were taught at. He no longer had to ask questions that everyone else already knew the answer to. He no longer had to wonder at things in silence, for fear of looking like a fool if he asked. He absorbed what he read like a sponge, memorizing the words instantaneously, and it wasn't long before the taunts about his stupidity disappeared.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of the library, however, was the discovery of the maps.

The maps were locked away in a dusty chest in the corner of the library. Reno had stumbled across the chest one night during a search for the meaning of _pi_, and he hadn't been able to resist picking the lock. _Pi_ was forgotten in the face of what he found. Maps. Maps of the _Training Center_, dated only three months prior to his arrival. He had already found old archives within the library that told him the old layout of the center, but those archives were decades old, and were of no real use to him. _These_ maps, however, were new enough to tell him everything. The first item on the map to spark his interest was a small room called Development.

* * *

When Reno went looking for the room called Development, he was expecting to find some high-tech lab full of all kinds of new weaponry. What he was _not_ expecting was an old room crowded with strange-looking electronics, with an even stranger-looking man seated at a rickety desk in the middle.

The man was dressed in a Turk uniform, the dark jacket contrasting sharply with his pale, albino skin. The jacket was tattered and faded, coated with enough dust to suggest that its wearer hadn't ventured out of this room for quite some time. The man's glasses were thick enough to magnify his eyes to three times their natural size, and Reno had to resist a strong urge to flee when he found himself faced with pale blue eyes the size of saucers. What was the guy doing here at 0200, anyway?

The albino stared at Reno for a while; Reno stared back. After several moments of this, a dry, quiet voice broke the silence. "My name is Whisper. Your hair is very bright. Would you like some tea?" Whisper was the first new friend Reno made in nearly a month of being at the Training Center.

* * *

From that night on, Reno made a point to visit Whisper at least every other night, always bringing with him a book or some topic for the two of them to discuss. Whisper had been in the Turks for seven years, and had been in charge of the Development section for nearly the entire time. His unique genius with electronics made him particularly suited towards developing new communications, radar, and medical equipment, which was primarily what Development was for. His albinism, quiet-yet-eccentric attitude, and that same genius made him particularly _ill_-suited towards working with people, and he had spent most of the past seven years alone, working odd hours simply because he could, and had nothing better to do with his time. The arrival of a new Trainee, intelligent and thirsting for knowledge, excited him, and he found himself engaging in long discussions and debated on anything from the philosophy of the (supposedly) extinct Cetra to the physics behind the creation of a White Dwarf.

Reno, for his part, was happy to find that he wasn't the only outcast living in the Training Center, and relished the opportunity to talk to someone who didn't treat him like a lower-class idiot, even if Whisper really _was_ a lot smarter than him. It was a match made in heaven, and it wasn't long before the two of them couldn't really recall a time when they _hadn't_ been meeting at 0200 for tea and a debate.

* * *

Reno's discovery of Whisper and the Development building was followed closely by his discovery of the uniform supply building.

Five weeks after the start of Training Group 713, an unidentified Trooper walked the halls of the Soldier Training Center, whistling to himself and looking about with bright eyes. Anyone passing by assumed he was newly-promoted, and smiled at what they thought was an eagerness to be at his new job. They would have been horrified had they known that a 5-week Turk Trainee was sauntering through the halls of their Training Center as though he owned the place, wearing a stolen uniform and using a fake ID to get through the gates. As it was, Reno's casual gallivanting came to a fairly sudden halt.

Leather, silver buckles, and creamy skin were all he had time to register before he walked face-first into what he could only describe as a solid wall of muscle, knocking him backwards to land on his ass. He shook his head, clearing it, and his gaze settled on a pair of leather boots, eyes narrowing as he surged to his feet.

"Hey, watch where the fuck you're going, asshole!" Dead silence reigned in the hallway, and a pair of cool green eyes, with pupils slitted like a cat's, gazed down at him in amusement. Reno was vaguely aware of the fact that he had rounded the corner into an office waiting room of some kind, that several people (including Dot-head, Sunglass-guy, and Kitten) were occupying it, and that they were all staring at him with some degree of horror on their faces. He ignored it all, of course, in favor of glaring at his silver-haired nemesis, who he had quickly nicknamed Gargantuan. Gargantuan gave a smirk fit to put one of Reno's to shame, and spoke.

"You are _not_ one of my Troopers."

Reno rolled his eyes. "Look, Gargantuan, I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but I'm _pretty_ sure you just knocked my ass to the _ground_, and _most_ people would consider that a _pretty_ sound reason for apologizing. Of course, maybe they just don't teach you freaks how to say 'sorry' in Giant-More-Brawn-Than-Brains Land." Gasps sounded throughout the room, and Reno had a brief moment to regret insulting someone twice his size with eyes that _looked like fucking __**cat's**__ eyes, for fuck's sake!_ before he found himself fending off a barrage of attacks so fast that he was reasonably sure Gargantuan had ten arms that he'd been hiding under his leather coat.

He fought furiously for a solid five minutes, which equated to approximately seven days in Reno-time, and was long enough for Gargantuan to grow increasingly curious and somewhat agitated over the fact that his red-headed nemesis wasn't on the ground bleeding yet. Then, with a quick dip of his body and vicious snap of his leg, he did what any self-respecting man would do in such a fight: he kicked Gargantuan in the groin and fled before the man could recover and chase him. A leap, twist, and bruised ribcage later, and Reno had hauled himself up into a conveniently-located air duct, reasonably sure that Gargantuan was too big to follow him through the ventilation system.

Left behind in the waiting room, hunched over wide-eyed, Reno's opponent laughed, shaking his head before turning to Tseng. "I assume _that_ was that brat Reno you were telling me about the other day?"

Tseng had the grace to look mortified as he replied, fighting the urge to rush over and offer up some Cure materia. "Yes, General. My apologies… he doesn't know who everyone is, and I'm sure he wouldn't have…" He sighed. "Well, he probably would have insulted you _more_ had he known who you were. I'm sorry."

Sephiroth laughed again, straightening and brushing a stray strand of hair back into place. "Fascinating child. I suppose I'll have to take you up on your offer to instruct Monday's hand-to-hand class; I don't believe I've ever seen a non-Soldier capable of sustaining a fight with me for that long." More to the point, he hadn't seen anyone who wasn't a _Soldier, First Class_ sustain a fight for that long, and he wouldn't pass up any chance to have a rematch. Tseng sighed, suspecting that Reno was going to wind up hospitalized for kicking the General in the crotch.

"Very well, I'll inform the usual instructors."

* * *

**A/N:** Hahaha, Reno is in for a surprise when he shows up to his next hand-to-hand class smirk Sorry for the short chapter, it's really late and I don't feel up to typing more tonight.

Also sorry about the space between updates. I've moved back into my dorm, and life is going to be pretty hectic from here on out, so updates probably won't be as frequent as they were at the start of the summer.

**Thanks for all of the reviews!** You guys doubled my review count on this last chapter alone, lol.

**Charlie O.** - 3 Rude :) I think I'd probably die of happiness too sigh / **Yourmomontoast** – I love me too . Hehe, j/k (sort of :p) Thanks for the continued reviews and nice words :) / **Etrixan** – oh man, you have nooo idea, lol. He might wet himself when he realizes who he pissed off this time though, hehe. / **Mistbender** – heh, looks like I keep managing to do that… Hope I can keep it up ;) / **xNai-Chanx** – Rude is a sweetie… he's just too shy and antisocial to admit it :p The war was going to continue for a bit longer, but future battles will have to wait until Reno becomes a full-fledged Turk, because he has a whole new level of angst coming his way instead / **jennie300303** – awww, Tseng's not so bad, just…needs to learnt to lighten up a bit . Don't worry, Reno will eventually wear him down ;) / **CuteLittleEarthbender** – Reno will eventually see them again; I was actually going to do a flashback of some kind to the time between Tseng's invitation and Reno's elevator ride, where he goes to visit them before heading to the Upper Plate, but have to find a good time to work it in there./ **Grinning Cheshire Cat 9** – lol, you sound like me when I go over these looking for typos… I know I saw one, but… gah. They're there, lurking somewhere . Thanks :) / **Soto-Uchiha** – hehe, I want to meet the kids in your neighborhood, lol / **tala-fangirl** – thanks :)

As usual, please spot any typos if you see them (and remember where they were ;) ) and otherwise, read, review, and enjoy :) Another update should be coming out soon…


	12. Int 2 Oops

**Warnings: **Reno is in some serious trouble. And he knows it.

* * *

_Interlude 2 - Oops_

* * *

Reno avoided Tseng, Elena, and the Soldier Training Center for the remainder of the week, certain that he didn't want to face them _or_ Gargantuan any time in the near future. He wasn't as successful at avoiding Rude, who was teaching his Political Science class on Thursday afternoon, but the silent man didn't speak to him during class. Reno did his best to scramble out of the room before Rude made it to the door when class was over, but he didn't get out in time to avoid the sharp cuff to the back of the head. Reno scowled at Rude's back when he pushed past to continue down the hall, and silently vowed to reinstate The War at the first opportunity. Physical violence was completely uncalled for. Definitely.

The rest of the day, week, and weekend passed without incident, although Reno's desk was scattered with papers outlining various plots to sneak into Rude's office or living quarters and torment him. His card-forging abilities only went so far, however, and he hadn't figured out how to get past the required security clearances yet. Maybe Whisper or the guys in the Tech Lab, another of his late-night discoveries, could help him out…

Monday rolled around like any other week. Training Group 713 was now a month and a half into training, marking the halfway point to the Deadline. The sun was shining, classes went on as usual, Reno continued plotting, oblivious to what his afternoon was going to bring.

He walked into his hand-to-hand class with a cheerful grin on his face. Hand-to-hand was, by far, his favorite class. He was good at it – he had to be, to have survived all of the Gang Wars and other violent fights down in the slums – and it was a nice break from sitting inside a stuffy classroom all day. Not that the classrooms were actually stuffy… ShinRa put plenty of money towards making sure the Trainees had clean, high-tech classes to work in, but that didn't stop them from being _boring_ half the time. It didn't help that, with the aid of the library and class syllabi, Reno always knew almost everything each class was going to teach anyway.

Regardless, hand-to-hand nearly always put a shit-eating grin on his face. There was nothing quite like getting the opportunity to pound your enemies into submission… his smile faded as soon as he stepped foot inside the Sparring Gym. Tseng, Rude, Elena, and the rest of the upper level Turks were standing in a small group near the bleachers, which in itself wasn't so unusual. They often showed up to sparring sessions to observe or test out how the Trainees were doing themselves. What made Reno's smile disappear was the fact that, scattered throughout the gym were soldiers, dressed for sparring. What made Reno want to spin around and run away was the fact that, standing right next to Tseng, was Gargantuan. Also dressed for sparring, with his long hair pulled back into a braid to keep it out of the way. The other Trainees began entering the gym, jostling him as they shoved past, and he lost his opportunity to escape. He opted to try and hide instead, shrinking in on himself to present a smaller target as he skulked around behind his classmates. He was too busy trying to avoid notice to pay attention to the excited whispers of "Sephiroth…" that were circulating through the group of Trainees. He shouldn't have bothered.

"Reno." Tseng's voice, cold and almost sounding amused ('_Cruel, heartless bastard…_') rang out through the gym. Reno froze, and the group of Trainees parted, opening a clear bath to him at the back of the group. '_Traitors…_' Tseng smiled. "Step forward, please."

Tseng smiling was usually a good indicator of being in store for sadistic pain in the near future. Coupled with _Gargantuan_ smiling, and Reno seriously debated trying to turn and run away anyway. He sighed, slouched, and dragged his feet when he walked forward. '_This is going to suck…_'

"Today, General Sephiroth has graciously accepted an invitation to teach your hand-to-hand class." Reno slowly turned to stare up at Gargantuan. He had kicked _General Sephiroth_ in the nuts last week? Why didn't anyone _warn_ him about this sort of thing? Tseng continued, oblivious to Reno's horrified stare and Sephiroth's cruelly amused smirk. "Even more fortunately, we have amongst your classmates a volunteer for a demonstration match." Reno's stare moved from Sephiroth to Tseng. He didn't recall volunteering for _anything_, and he was pretty sure his quick escape last week had been indicative of a desire to _avoid_ sparring with Gargantuan… Sephiroth… whatever the hell the guy's name really was. '_Okay, I was wrong. This is going to go way beyond sucking._' The other Trainees smirked, catching on to Reno's displeasure immediately and savoring it. Finally, someone was going to put that little shit in his place.

* * *

**A/N:** Heh, yeah, so… Life has been ridiculously busy since I arrived back on campus, and I haven't had time to write pretty much anything :( As a result, you get this tiny little filler chapter instead of anything significant. I'm sorry for that, sorry for Chapter 9 kind of sucking, and sorry for the fact that Chapter 10, which will mainly cover Reno's fight with Seph, is going to suck even more. In fact, if I can find a away to avoid writing the sparring scene, and skip to the rest of Reno's miserable week, I probably will.

With that said… Oh. My. God. You all left me a ridiculous amount of reviews for the last chapter (DESPITE the fact that it was pretty much crap!). You all amaze me :)

**Charlie O.** – oooh, hope the wedding was nice! And you're welcome ;) Now I want to put Advent Children on, lol.

**Gismo** – lol, I'm glad you seemed to like it more than me :p I'm just… disappointed in it somehow -sigh- I wound up not writing half the stuff I had wanted to about Whisper, used the wrong name for his little hidey-hole (and now I have to change stuff later in the story to account for that), and the fight with Seph was just…blah. Amusing, but not really what I'd planned to write either. And now I've got myself stuck having to so _another_ fight scene… what's wrong with me? . -cough- Anyway :p Thanks for the review ;)

**Angeal Valentine** – hmmm… my word file has blackmail, ffnet put… blac5fkmail. I am highly confused, and will definitely correct that, lol. Thanks for pointing it out :) Whisper has a relatively minor role at the moment, but I'm tossing around some ideas for him later on. Depends on what direction I decide to go with the story :)

**Etrixan** – yeah, he certainly does know how to impress, hehe. At least they're the sort of people to truly _be_ impressed by him, instead of just royally pissed off :p

**Mistbender** – hehe, I actually haven't decided just what I'm going to do to him with regards to Sephiroth. He's definitely not going to enjoy it though ;)

**xNaia-Chanx** – yeah, I have to say I agree with you on the "only okay" part… blargh. Rude is supposed to show up the next chapter, but I don't remember what I was going to have him do :-o So now I have to figure it out all over again :(

**Dirty Velvet** – owned. Definitely owned. :D

**Tala-fangirl** – it's definitely going to come back to haunt him though…

**CuteLittleEarthbender** – SURPRISE! Hehehe. Poor Reno indeed…

**Jennie300303** – yeah, unfortunately that sort of attitude isn't exactly over towards him :( Meeting Whisper provided a nice reprieve for him, but… he's definitely in for some serious misery soon :(

**Bob da Peach** – lol, glad you're enjoying it :) I'm posting this interlude now with the intention of immediately working on chapter 10, so hopefully I can oblige with an actual update soon ;)

**Soppakulho** – no kidding! I've been here a little over a month now, and I'm about ready to go nuts with how busy everything has been :'( Need a vacation _already_ .

Thanks to all of you for your continued reviews, faves, and support! It means a lot to me, even when I don't have the time to update anything :)

As usual, please point out any blatant mistakes or typos that you notice.


	13. Ch 10 Agony

**Warnings: **Reno gets his ass kicked. Twice.

* * *

_Chapter Ten – Agony_

* * *

… '_Okay, I was wrong. This is going to go way beyond sucking._' The other Trainees smirked, catching on to Reno's displeasure immediately and savoring it. Finally, someone was going to put that little shit in his place.

* * *

Reno landed on his face, the coppery taste of blood invading his mouth. The fight had lasted for five minutes and 23.7 seconds, by Sephiroth's count, before the General caught him with a vicious roundhouse punch, sending him flying a good ten feet before he was painfully acquainted with the ground. Dazed from both the hit and the landing, he barely managed to roll onto his back, the sound of laughter dimly registering in his mind. He was too disoriented to curse the other trainees for being assholes.

Sephiroth wasn't so impaired.

"What, _exactly_, do you all find so amusing?" His cold green eyes scanned across the watching Trainees, and they immediately fell silent. The General was angry, even if they weren't really sure _why_, and several of them stopped breathing in their efforts to remain still. He let them quake in silence for several long moments before allowing a flash of fury to cross his face. "I _asked_ you a _question_, Trainees!" The Trainees jumped and then cowered, not daring to say anything, and Sephiroth scowled. "Do you find it amusing to see a classmate injured?" Their shifting eyes said everything, and he laughed. There was no humor in the sound. "You are all _maggots_. Not _one_ of you would last for five _seconds_ in a pitched battle with me, let _alone_ five _minutes_." He scoffed at them and turned away, waving a hand at the other Soldiers in the room. "Take these worthless brats and humiliate them." The Soldiers smirked and moved in towards their prey. Nothing like tormenting someone else's Trainees…

Sephiroth kneeled down next to Reno, scanning over him quickly to make sure he wasn't seriously injured. Reno, who had recovered enough to have heard the majority of the General's scathing diatribe against the other Trainees, resisted the urge to yank out some stray hairs that had escaped Sephiroth's braid, and cocked an eyebrow. "Thanks. You just beat the shit out of me _and _made sure they'll hate me forever. I'm indebted to you, really."

Sephiroth chuckled. "Nice to know that getting your ass handed to you doesn't dampen your spirit any." Reno rolled his eyes.

"Trust me. It's dampened. A _lot_. A five minute fight is pathetic."

The General smirked at that. "Not against _me_." He straightened, offering a hand to pull Reno to his feet. Reno brushed the sand out of his hair and clothes, sighing. '_I'm going to have sand stuck in my hair for days now…_' Sephiroth smirked again, recognizing the cause behind the sigh. He had long hair too, after all. "Well? Ready to go again?"

Reno stared at him. "Are you fucking _insane_? Why the hell would I want to do that _again_?"

Sephiroth grinned and shrugged. "Just making sure I didn't give you any brain damage." Reno laughed at that. "No more actual spars, for today at any rate. This is, however, supposed to be a class, so unless you're hurt enough that you want to just go home and cry," and he smiled evilly at Reno's glare, "then you may as well stay and let me teach you something."

Reno eyed him suspiciously. "You won't punch me in the side of the head?" A shake of the head. "Knock me ten feet away?" Another shake. "Otherwise injure and humiliate me?"

"No guarantees." Reno sighed.

"Well, at least that's better than when I had to spar against Tseng that one time… he definitely had no problem injuring me _or_ humiliating me. Let's do it."

Sephiroth smiled.

* * *

_Mainstreet_, a local bar that catered to Cadets and Trainees, was packed that night. Tuesday was a holiday (some celebration of some guy's birthday that nobody really remembered or cared about), which meant that everyone who could make their way off-post had done so, and most of them were drinking.

Tucked into a lonely corner of the bar, Reno drank alone.

He had figured out a long time ago that none of the other Trainees particularly liked him, but they hadn't ever been this overtly hostile towards him, either. His sparring match with Sephiroth, and the ensuing ass-chewing that they had received, seemed to have changed that. _Reno_ got to learn from the General. _Reno_ was an excellent fighter. _Reno_ was better than them.

Reno was ostracized.

Even the Cadets, who normally didn't pay any real attention to the gossip and cliques amongst the Trainees, avoided him. It wasn't that they were particularly jealous; they knew enough about learning from the General to know that Reno had probably had a really shitty, painful day, but they didn't want to get on the bad side of the rest of the Trainee population. One Trainee on his own probably wouldn't last long anyway, with the rest of them out to get him.

Reno downed his fourth drink. There wasn't any real point to staying sober when being sober hurt so bad; alcohol numbs everything.

* * *

He was wandering lost in a back alley when he first realized that he was being followed. He had been intrigued and a little excited to discover that even the Upper Plate had some shady areas, and the alcohol in his system ensured that he wasn't cautious of his surroundings. It wasn't until he heard footsteps scuffing the asphalt behind him that he realized he shouldn't have been walking around drunk in a strange area. He didn't even have his knife on him.

He quickened his pace as best he could, given that he could barely tell which way was up, but it didn't do him any good. The footsteps followed, and he turned a corner into a dead end. Old crates and garbage filled the corners, and there was a large overhang at the very end. A spool of wire on the wall led up to a pulley attached to the overhang, dangling down into the street. Reno was too drunk to know what it was for, and too worried about his followers to care. He spun around just in time to see a fist connect with his face. '_Devin_.' The dark-haired Trainee laughed when Reno fell to the ground, using the opportunity to kick him in the ribs. The others laughed, joining in when Devin backed away to give them space. There were five of them.

Several minutes later, Reno lay broken and bleeding on the ground, blood seeping from numerous gashes along his body. His painful breathing indicated broken ribs, and he had vomited some time during the assault, the acidic alcohol burning his throat and nose. He coughed, spitting up blood and whatever was left of the gin in his stomach. Devin's four companions laughed; Devin himself had discovered the wire, and was busy making a noose.

He leaned down next to Reno when he was done, the wire looped in his hands. "You're a real piece of shit, you know that?" Reno was in too much pain to respond, and Devin chuckled, sitting back on his heels. "Aww, you're hurt." The others laughed again. "Here, I'll do you a favor. I'll make it feel _all_ better." A cruel sneer twisted his face, and he pulled the loop of the wire around Reno's head, tightening the noose on his neck. Reno tried to move his broken fingers up to slip the wire back off, but Devin and the others worked too quickly. They began turning the handle on the spool, tightening the wire.

Reno was dangling nearly five feet off the ground before they locked the spool in place, the wire digging into his neck and cutting off his air. It wasn't positioned properly to cut off the blood flow, but that only meant that he'd be awake for longer before suffocating and finally dying. Devin and the others laughed again, keeping their distance to avoid the possibility of being kicked.

"Well, we'd really love to, you know, _hang around_, but we've got better stuff to do. Have a nice night, pal." They walked off, heading back into the alley, and were soon out of sight and hearing. Reno panicked.

His fingers were too bloody to grip the wire, and several of them were broken and couldn't grip anyway. He could only go without air for so long before it would be too late, and his phone was in his room along with his knife. He tried to pull himself up in the wire again.

After an agonizingly long minute later, Reno had finally managed to struggle with the wire enough to gain a few inches of slack. He wheezed, barely able to draw any air into his ruined windpipe, and desperately tried to force away the darkness that was slowly consuming his vision. He felt his fingers slipping again, and his pulse jumped, throbbing in his ears. He was going to die. Panicking again, he twisted his head around and caught the wire in his teeth right before it became too tight again.

His teeth gripped the soft metal far better than his bloodied fingers had, and his eyes brightened momentarily. If he could work his way up with his teeth, high enough to swing his legs up and kick the pulley, he might be able to get himself down.

* * *

He lay on the asphalt again, unconscious. It had taken him nearly thirty minutes to work his way up the wire, and blood welled up from the lines that the wire had left on his face. He had been too exhausted to try catching himself when he fell, and his head struck the pavement. It was over an hour before he woke up again.

* * *

The moon wasn't out that night, and darkness filled the streets of Midgar. Widely-spaced street lamps provided the only illumination, casting long shadows into the night. In this Sector of the city, no people walked the streets; no clubs or bars spilled noise and light out into the streets. The empty office buildings were closed for the night, and nobody was present to see the wraith limping his way back towards the Training Center.

Blood matted his hair, covered his face and body. Pink froth bubbled up from his lips, oozing down to mix with the blood that soaked into his shirt. What little skin that could be seen beneath the blood was pale, waxen. Bruised. His eyes were lifeless and barely open, only admitting enough light for him to see his way. Blood spotted the ground behind him, leaving a trail all the way back to the alley, where a wire noose and a busted pulley lay in a slowly clotting pool of blood. He stumbled, fell. It took several minutes before he was able to drag himself to his feet and continue on.

* * *

The guard on duty at the entrance to the Training Center was bored and half asleep. This shift was always the worst; everyone who had gone out drinking had long since returned, and there probably wouldn't be anyone entering or leaving the compound for several hours. He sighed, standing and stretching to keep from falling asleep. It would be just his luck if his commander decided to stop by on one of his infamous late-night checks of the perimeter. Tired eyes scanned the area outside of the guard shack. Nothing moving inside the compound. Nothing moving outside either… He squinted. Something _was_ moving, hobbling slowly up the street towards the gate. Dark slacks and jacket, white shirt… The figure collapsed, and the guard rushed for his phone. A Turk has just gone down outside the compound.

* * *

**A/N:** Reno really hasn't had a very pleasant evening… Not much to say, except that I've got the next part handwritten out already, so all I have to do is type it up to post it. Hopefully I can do that soon, but no guarantees… I have some field training this weekend, plus a road trip to Alabama, and more field training next weekend, so I'm probably not going to have time to mess with this for a few weeks, since I'll have some classes to make up :(

Oh, and Mainstreet is the name of a local bar near where I go to school :P

**Angeal Valentine** – heh, you have no idea how much he really does need that will… Guess he at least got lucky with Seph though :p

**xNai-Chanx** – hehe, here you go ;) School sucks :( No Rude in this chapter, and I don't think he'll be in the next one either (except maybe one or two cameo appearances). Soon though… Reno did, after all, vow to restart The War ;)

**Riku-Rocks** – well, he did okay versus the General… didn't get quite so lucky later on though :( He won't let himself get so drunk like that again though .

As usual, please point out the typos or anything that's missing (or just flat-out confusing… like a random spool of wire connected to a random pulley hooked to a random overhang in a random dead-end alley :p)


	14. Ch 11 Revenge

**Warnings:** Those little bastards get what they deserve… and then some.

* * *

_Chapter Eleven – Revenge_

* * *

The Turk Training Center was unnaturally quiet on Wednesday morning, its inhabitants shaken by Monday night's events. A Trainee was in the hospital, victim of a brutal attempted murder by some of his fellow Trainees. There were few rules governing the conduct between Trainees, but no murder, or injury with intent to kill, was pretty high on that list. The perpetrators, however, had not been caught, accused, or confessed; Reno was unconscious, and only a fool would admit to being involved. The five in question were not fools.

Nevertheless, everyone knew who was responsible; the five were shunned by the other Trainees, and sat alone in their classes, silent and unspoken to. The entire compound waited with bated breath to see what would become of them, and of Reno.

* * *

It was three days before he was awake and released from the hospital, his physical injuries Cured enough for him to return to classes. Social opinion of him had changed drastically during those few days – no one thought that he deserved what happened, and the other Trainees were now, finally, supportive of his right to be there with them – but he secluded himself from them, sitting silently in his back corner. Even the instructors, who would normally have rejoiced to see the boisterous redhead _finally_ keeping quiet, were concerned. He sat with his head down and shoulders slumped, looking beaten, broken. The Cure materia had only worked to fix his physical hurts. Many had wished to see him humbled, but now that he finally was, they regretted it. Reno was too loud, too damned _bright_, for them to bear watching him waste away. Outwardly, he was devastated.

Inwardly, he plotted. He was tired of being stabbed in the back, tired of being stomped on. He knew why Tseng hadn't punished his five tormenters, understood _completely_, but he had never been one for letting betrayals go unpunished. The Reaping had been enough to prove _that_.

The world was at his disposal. He had been sneaking around the compound since he arrived, and had discovered the Tech Department even before he found the library's maps. He had returned there frequently, studying everything he could get his hands on, even borrowing objects and compounds for a few nights before returning them, if he needed more time to understand what something did. He drew pictures and wrote humorous notes to the lab techs, asking questions if he couldn't figure out what something did on his own. Charmed by a Trainee that they had, fortunately, never actually met in person, they were amused by his curiosity and blatant disregard for locked doors, and always wrote back, hiding the notes in creative spots for him to discover. In this manner, he had gained valuable knowledge and uncontested access to resources that few others even knew existed.

He had also flirted and joked his way into the good graces of the cooking staff early on, a benefit that he had previously used to garner special drinks and treats from them. Combined with his propensity for sneaking through the buildings' ventilation systems, he had practically unlimited access to _every_ aspect of the Trainees' lives, a fact that he now used to his advantage. He studied the five for over a week to memorize their patterns and habits before sitting down at his desk one night, pulling out a sheet of notebook paper, and making a list.

* * *

Marten was the first to go. He had harmed Reno the least that night, and got the benefit of the lightest revenge. Reno skipped classes that day, instead settling to wait on the roof of one of the administrative buildings. The rooftop overlooked several of the buildings that housed the classrooms. Armed and hidden by the raised edge of the roof, Reno waited for Marten to emerge from the building directly to his left. He had timed it well, and didn't have long to wait. Carefully placing the muzzle of his weapon in a conveniently-positioned crack in the low wall, Reno took aim, paused in his breathing, and gently squeezed the trigger.

Marten's head snapped back, a large bloom of red appearing dead-center in his forehead. He dropped to the ground, eyes wide and mouth hanging open.

It took him several long moments to realize that, had a sniper round struck him in the forehead, his brains would be spattered on the ground behind him, and he would be dead. It took him another moment and a quick taste of the substance on his forehead to confirm that it was paint. He shook uncontrollably, unable to get up from the ground. Trainees weren't selected because they were idiots, and Marten knew exactly who had shot him. He also knew that if Reno could find a _paintball_ gun, of all things, in the compound, then he could easily find a real gun. Marten was lucky.

Reno waited, motionlessly, for Marten to finally get up and leave, still trembling. By that time, everyone else in the area had stopped looking around and rushed away, lest the unseen sniper decide to take some more potshots. Once he was sure that no one was around to pay attention, Reno moved back to the trap-door in the roof, low-crawling just to be safe. He returned to his room, cleaned the paintball gun, and stored it in one of the locked boxed beneath his bed, stashing his set of lock picks back in his pocket once he was done. He then pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket, and crossed a name off of the list.

* * *

Kenon and Trey were the next two to go, and were attacked within an hour of each other. Kenon opened the door to his room and had just enough time to see a gleaming blade slash out at him before a vivid red line appeared across his throat, red slowly oozing down to soak into his collar. He stood there, too shocked to move, his eyes focused on the holographic panel situated in the middle of his room. He shifted slightly, bringing his hand up to his neck, and the knife in the holograph shifted as well, appearing to move sideways. The panel projected the image just far enough to make is seem as though the knife was _right there_, and he flinched backwards without thinking. Pulling his hand away from his neck, Kenon slowly looked down at the red staining his palm. Paint.

Trey appeared in the multipurpose room about an hour later, trembling, a thin red line slashed across his throat. He was too shaken to tell anyone what had happened. Kenon brought a hand up to his own throat, remembering the feeling of that paint slicing across. When they returned to their rooms later in the day, ducking out of paranoia when they opened they doors, they discovered that the holographic panels had disappeared.

Aika, the only female in the group, fell victim to a much more ominous attack. The Trainees had spaghetti for dinner that night, and the meal was served out of large communal pots. No one was entirely sure how Aika got food poisoning from the meal, when nobody else was affected, but she woke up in the middle of the night cramping and vomiting, and had to be taken to the hospital. Blood tests showed that she had been poisoned by an enterotoxin secreted by _Clostridium perfringens_ bacteria. Subsequent tests on the leftover spaghetti sauce and the pots used for cooking showed no signs of the bacteria. Aika was released from the hospital late the next day, but had to be hospitalized again two days later because she refused to eat anything. The other Trainees didn't see her again.

Several days passed after Aika was hospitalized, with no sign of attack on Devin. He became jumpy, startling at the slightest noise and becoming increasingly paranoid about what he ate. The rest of the Trainees, with the exception of Reno, found themselves watching him almost continuously, wondering what would happen to him.

Reno, for his part, didn't seem to pay any attention to Devin at all. He hadn't paid any attention to the other four either, remaining in his depressed state over the course of the past week and a half. His apathy led many of the Trainees to believe that he wasn't behind the attacks at all, and that someone else was getting revenge _for_ him. He certainly wasn't ever seen doing anything to _Devin_, who had taken to fleeing at the first sight of him. Of course, nobody _could_ see into the ventilation systems.

* * *

For several nights, Reno had been crawling through the ventilation ducts over to Devin's room. Once there, he pulled an object resembling an inhaler out of his pocket, sprayed one puff into Devin's room, and left. The vapor had no color and no odor, and Devin was too heavy of a sleeper for the small noise made by the inhaler to wake him.

* * *

Two weeks after Reno returned from the hospital, Devin was taken away screaming. Some of the rumors spreading throughout the Training Center said that he had started convulsing on the floor in the middle of a class. Other rumors stated that he had started to scream and go into hysterics, claiming that "They're coming to _get_ me!" Reno, typically, showed no response when the rumors were talked about in front of him. Then again, he never did.

Two days later, the lab techs in the Tech Department found a pile containing one of their high-powered sniper rifle-based paintball guns, two holographic panels, a test tube labeled _Clostridium perfringens, _and an "inhaler" containing one of their newly-developed neurotoxins. A small note stuck onto the paintball gun read, "Thanks, I really had a blast with all this stuff." A tiny sketch of a black-haired Trainee freaking out in a straight jacket completed the note.

The lab techs smiled, put the equipment back where it belonged, and went back to work, hiding a note saying "You're welcome" under a box containing one of their newest weapons, an electromagnetic stun baton. He would find the note eventually.

* * *

**A/N:** Eh, so _Clostridium perfringens_ is a heat-resistant bacterium that causes (typically) non-lethal food poisoning, with an incubation period of 8-16 hours. Food poisoning from this bacterium is usually resolved within 24 hours, and scientists believe that most people have probably gotten food poisoning from it at some point in their lives. Yay for Wikipedia :p

I tried to find a neurotoxin that would fit Devin's punishment, but the ones I found were all related to chemical warfare, and are highly lethal, which wouldn't work for this. Oh well…

Nobody's ever gonna mess with Reno like that again, lol.

Aaand yeah, I obviously updated much faster than I said I would :p This is what I already had written out though, and the next part isn't really planned at all (the next part I have actually planned is just a snippet that doesn't happen for a while), so the next update probably really will take some time to be posted. Maybe I'll get lucky and go on a writing spree though ;)

**Soto-Uchiha** – Aww, thanks :) Reno survived, now we just have to see if he can recover from his mental issues…

**Riku-Rocks** – I'm trying to make Seph a little more human and a little less of a cold-hearted bastard in this story… kind of a father figure to Reno. We'll see how it goes, lol. Maybe I'll have to make him into the trouble-making uncle instead… :p

**Etrixan** – at least 2 of them never will be Turks ;) Haven't decided what to do with the other three, but I think I might just leave them. Or kill them off in various training accidents… we'll see. Devin didn't quite get an ass-kicking… he did, however, receive what I like to call a "mind fuck", a technique that we'll get to see Reno employ several times throughout the course of this story :) My original plan for Devin was going to be a lot more detailed and lengthy, but I decided it was even less realistic than what I have happening here, and it's easier for Reno to get away with it like this :p

**Jennie300303** – Reno doesn't deserve so much of the shit that happens to him :( Good thing Seph is like a knight in shining armor though, lol. (and a good thing Reno is meaner than those other idiots could ever try to be, hehe)

**Paopu** – Devin shall never bee seen again –smirk- Unless I decide to have Reno visit a mental facility for some reason later on, in which case Devin might make a cameo :p

**Charlie O.** – the updates continue! This, however, marks the end of what I already have planned out, so the next might really take a couple of weeks like I said :(

FFNet has been doing some strange things to some of my words (it took the word "He" and changed it into something along the lines of "HHHeHHZHHHe"), so please, if you see anything ridiculous like that, let me know. Otherwise, the usual, feel free to point out typos and such :)


	15. Ch 12 The War

**Warnings: **Not a whole lot to warn about for this one, except perhaps a ridiculous amount of immaturity and swearing.

* * *

_Chapter Twelve – The War_

* * *

The next month that passed far, for the most part, unremarkable. Reno returned to meeting with Whisper, but found himself sitting and drinking tea in silence more often than conversing with the albino recluse. He didn't return to the Tech Labs, having no real reason or desire to do so, although he did continue visiting the library at night to read whenever the mood took him. During the day, his behavior didn't change a great deal. He started paying more attention in his classes, actually looking up at the whiteboards instead of staring at his desk, but he still didn't talk a great deal, and that only when he was called on. Although some of the life had returned to his eyes following Devin's departure, it didn't return to his personality.

The Deadline came and went; nobody remarked upon it, but every Trainee felt that extra bit of pressure to perform well; now they couldn't leave without being killed. Several of the senior Turks had suggested to Tseng that he remind Reno of the Deadline, but Tseng declined to do so, deciding that Reno knew when it was and would remove himself as he saw fit. When the Deadline had passed, Reno remained.

It was nearly the fourth month of training before Reno finally seemed to break out of his shell.

* * *

'_Learning about heat transfer has __**got**__ to be one of the most boring classes in the entire fucking __**world**__._' Reno sighed, only half listening to the instructor as she lectured about the Sun.

"So, if you're cold at night, what ways are there to warm yourself up?"

Reno's hand shot up immediately. "Friction!"

She stared at him. "I was hoping for something along the lines of 'blanket', or 'fire'."

"So… friction isn't a method you're used to using, huh?" Repressed snickers were breaking out throughout the classroom, and the instructor glared at him before turning away, clearly choosing to ignore his existence completely.

"As I was _saying_, there are several methods of conducting heat…" Reno smirked again, slouching in his seat. '_Maybe this class isn't so bad after all…_'

* * *

Over the course of the next few days, Reno seemed to return to normal, and things in the Training Center were as though nothing had ever happened to him. If he sometimes stared at his scars in the mirror and hated himself for them, or silently cried himself to sleep at night, well… No one else ever noticed.

* * *

The toothpick hung for a moment, wobbled, and fell, bouncing off of Reno's face and landing on the floor. He sighed, bending over to pick it up.

He. Was. Bored. Classes were cancelled for the day (nobody really explained why, and Reno hadn't been able to find out on his own), and he had absolutely nothing to do. Hence the reason why he was currently sitting in an abandoned lounge on a floor of the ShinRa building that he wasn't allowed to be on, shooting toothpicks at the ceiling with a straw. He had stolen the toothpicks from the cafeteria, and was trying to make a picture on the ceiling with the different colors, but thus far the toothpicks were defeating him. This stupid red one kept falling every time he managed to get it stuck… He glared at it before sticking it back in the straw, tilting his head back and drawing in a deep breath. He just had to _angle_ it right, and…

The straw, along with the enclosed toothpick, was snatched out of his mouth before he had to opportunity to blow. Standing up and spinning to scowl at the offender, he was only half surprised and _entirely_ displeased to find Rude standing there, giving him a disapproving glare from behind his shades.

"What the _fuck,_ yo?!"

Rude's only response was to reach over, grab the rest of the toothpicks from the table, and walk away. Reno twitched. First his booze, now his toothpicks… this guy was really going too far.

"You know what? Hey Baldie! Look at me, you giant mutant freak! What the hell is your _problem_? Those are my _toothpicks_! Hey! Sunglass-Guy! I'm _talking_ to you!" Rude smirked and continued walking, leaving Reno behind to rant.

* * *

Reno sighed, frustrated. He'd been wandering through the Tech Labs for hours now, trying to find something to get Rude back with. He didn't need anything like the neurotoxins or biological agents; he wasn't trying to hurt the guy, just annoy the living _shit_ out of him. He also didn't particularly want to mess with the paintball gun again; Rude was probably a better sniper than him, and that would only turn out badly in the end. So far, however, he hadn't found anything else that would really help him. '_All this __**shit**__ and nothing useful!_' He huffed, kicking a nearby shelf in annoyance.

He yelped, hopping around in favor of his now-throbbing toes, and fell over, cursing the gods and the shelf and Rude and the lab techs and anything or anyone else he could think of. It took him several moments of increasingly creative swearing to notice that he'd knocked a box off of the shelf when he kicked it. A small piece of paper had floated down to rest next to the box.

Curious, he crawled over, snatching up the paper. '_You're welcome._' He grinned, grabbing the box and ripping the lid off.

Inside the box was… a stick. A metal stick, sure, but… a stick? Reno pulled it out of the box, wondering why the techs had wanted him to find it. Metal stick, black handle… switch. He smiled, holding it by the handle and flicking the switch on.

He promptly electrocuted himself.

"Mother_**fucker**_!" He dropped the stick (Electric Rod from HELL) with a shout, sharp currents of electricity traveling through his body and making his muscles twitch and spasm. He glared at the rod. "What the hell was _that_ for?" Predictably, the rod didn't answer, and Reno sighed, gingerly picking it up again.

This time when he flicked the switch, he made sure that the only part of the rod touching himself was the handle. It practically hummed, and he could sense a faint vibration running along its length. Curious, he reached out and touched it to the back of a nearby metal chair. The chair exploded in a violent fountain of blue sparks, shooting from its location to crash into the opposite wall. Reno grinned. '_This… is awesome._'

He played with the rod for a while, zapping various objects with it, before putting it back in the box and scrawling a note to the techs. He _wanted_ one.

Finished with the note, he sighed, looking around. He hadn't really accomplished what he'd come here for; the lab didn't really have anything in it that he could use to annoy Rude without maiming him at the same time. Shrugging, he put it off to bad luck, and resolved to raid the supply building the next night. They probably had some more mundane objects lying around that he could use. In the meantime, he'd have to resort to something a little more childish.

* * *

When Rude came into his office the next day, he was startled to see that his desk was… he didn't really want to say _ransacked_, but… Someone had scattered his pencils and files _everywhere_. He glared. None of the other Turks were suicidal to mess around with his desk; that left only one person brave or _stupid_ enough to break in to his office and cause a mess.

That brat was going to get it.

* * *

Reno sighed, stumbling over to his desk. He couldn't _believe_ how much stupid homework the instructors were assigning this week… It was like they had all gotten together in a secret meeting and conspired to assign as much work as possible and make it all due on the _same day_, with exams to follow. Rubbing his eyes, he pulled a notebook over to him, tugging at the cover.

It wouldn't open.

Reno blinked, not entirely sure if he was really awake yet or not. He tugged at the cover again; no effect. The pages were equally stuck together. He frowned before leaning over, cautiously, and taking a sniff. Glue. Somebody had _glued_ his _notebook_ together! He scowled, pulling out his other notebooks. Same result. Not only were they all glued together, but… they had been in his room, with him, all night! None of the other Trainees were skilled (or stupid) enough to have gotten in and pulled it off without waking him; that left only one person he could pin it on. His eyes narrowed.

Payback was going to be a bitch.

* * *

Rude straightened his tie before walking into the conference room, Elena and Tseng in front of him. They were the first ones there; the seats were all pushed in neatly, tray of coffee and porcelain mugs waiting in the corner. Rude's seat was farthest from the door, and Tseng and Elena were seated before him, waiting patiently for the rest of the council to arrive. He resisted the urge to yawn, pulling out his seat and sitting without looking at it. These meetings were always so boring…

A loud farting noise ripped through the conference room.

Rude froze, hands gripping the edge of the table, as Tseng and Elena slowly turned towards him. He stared back at them, baffled and embarrassed to the point of immobility. His stasis was only temporary, however, and he stood as slowly as he had sat down, turning to stare at his seat. His humiliated look (somewhat hidden by the ever-present sunglasses on his face) was quickly replaced by a foreboding glare, and he reached out to his chair, picking up a… whoopee cushion.

Elena burst out laughing, and Tseng covered his mouth with his hand, trying to pretend that he wasn't smiling. The whoopee cushion had the word '_Payback_' scrawled on it in black ink.

* * *

A loud crash reverberated through the hall of the Dorms, and several Trainees curiously poked their heads out of their rooms. They quickly withdrew when they heard Reno cursing from inside his room. _Not_ something anyone there wanted to be involved in…

He only slowed down his swearing to snarl, glaring furiously at his chair. He had sat down, fresh notebook in hand to make notes for one of his essays, and one of the legs on the chair had snapped in two, making him crash face-first into his desk and onto the floor.

Grimacing, he jerked the remains of the chair toward him, muttering more curses under his breath. What were the chances that he, of all people, would be absolutely fucking _cursed_ by a goddamned piece of shit chair that… had a leg sawed ¾ of the way through. Sawed. Through. He clenched his jaw.

* * *

Rude was confident when he walked into work the next day; he had no meetings to attend to, he had locked all of his pens and paperwork away where that punk couldn't get to them… today was going to be a good day.

He opened the door to his office and was two steps in before he realized that something was wrong.

"_Mother__**fucker**_!"

Everything in the office… stopped. Pens and pencils stopped scratching, phone conversations halted, Turks and secretaries alike stared at each other, their doors, their desks. Had that been _Rude_?

Concerned by the fact that, in the entire time he'd known him, Tseng had never once heard Rude swear, let alone _yell_, the Head of the Department left his office quickly, almost as worried by the silence following Rude's sudden outburst as he was by the shout itself. When he arrived at Rude's open doorway, all he could do was stop and stare.

The desk, walls, carpet… even the _ceiling_ were completely covered in red-painted smiley faces, grinning evilly down (or up, in some cases) at Rude. They were _everywhere_. It would probably take weeks to get rid of them all, and the desk and carpet would have to be completely replaced.

"Sir, I have a Trainee that I need to go murder."

Tseng nodded, stepping aside so that Rude could leave. Staring one last time at the ruined office, he left to return to his paperwork, shutting the door quietly behind him.

* * *

When Reno returned to his room after his morning classes, he was expecting to take a shower, do some homework, and possibly take a nap. He was _not_ expecting to find his bed, desk, walls, carpet… even the _ceiling_ completely covered in _syrup_.

He stared. He didn't even yell, or curse. It was just so… unexpected. Didn't that overgrown behemoth have work? Cleaning to do? Repainting? Recarpeting? Desk-shopping? How did he manage to turn the prank around so quickly?

He huffed angrily. '_Two of us can play the pick-up-shit-from-the-convenience-store game._' He turned and stalked away, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

Rude had returned to work not long after he left, saying only that he'd "run some errands" when Tseng questioned him. He was smug, moving his paperwork to an unoccupied lounge to work in. His smug mood didn't even disappear when a toothpick (one from the cafeteria, decorated with red plastic) fell from the ceiling and landed in his coffee. He'd gotten the brat back good, and _nothing_ was going to spoil his mood for the rest of the day. _**Nothing**_.

How wrong he was.

His car was covered in toilet paper. _Covered_. He dropped his briefcase. This… this was really going too far. He sighed, adjusted his tie and sunglasses, and walked to the car, praying that the toilet paper was at least _clean_ before he began to peel it off.

* * *

Reno couldn't stop the startled scream when he fell out of bed, air raid sirens going off right next to his ear. '_Oh __**shit**_!' He scrambled off of the floor and into the hallway, wondering where the hell any bunkers were around the Dorms. You'd figure they'd brief something like that…

Only four other people piled into the hallway: the two people on either side of his room. They all stopped and stared at each other, each dressed only in some form of underwear. '_Why isn't anyone else trying to get out…?_" Reno looked around, confused, before he slowly began to realize that the sirens weren't going off over the PA system; they were originating from his room. He stared at his open door. That might explain why only the people immediately surrounding his room had been startled awake by them…

Gritting his teeth, he stalked back into his room. A portable siren stood on a plain wooden barstool, right next to where his head lay when he slept. How he had managed to avoid it when he fell out of bed was anybody's guess. _Now_ he started swearing, ripping the siren's power cord out of the wall and storming out of the room. The other four watched him go, wondering where he'd gotten an air raid siren from, and why he was going outside in his boxers. Their first question was never answered, but the loud crash of the siren being smashed repeatedly into the sidewalk answered the second one. Shrugging and grumbling a little bit about being woken up, they all turned and went back to sleep, leaving Reno to take his anger out on the mangled siren alone.

* * *

'_Fine. You win. Depriving me of sleep is completely uncalled for and inhumane, but you win. This time._

…

…

_P.S._

_Where can I go to get a portable air raid siren repaired?_'

Rude smiled, tucking the note into his drawer.

* * *

**A/N:**

Like I said, mainly just a lot of immaturity here. The transition from Reno being kind of depressed to being back to his original self wasn't as smooth as I would have like, but given that I thought up the scenario while I was in bed, and didn't get up to write it down in favor of getting some much-needed sleep, I guess it's not too bad.

Stick around to find out what exactly Reno wrote in his note to the techs, and whether Rude replies to the question about the air raid siren ;)

**Reviews:**

Ok, so I've gotten a lot of reviews, and unfortunately have the time to respond to each one individually like I usually do (sorry, but being gone the past two weekends and missing class and such has kind of put a strain on me in terms of coursework, and I honestly shouldn't even be writing anything for this right now anyway :p). So, I'm going to go ahead and just do a big block response, and hopefully cover all of the stuff you guys brought up in your reviews.

Tseng does indeed know who's behind the 'pranks', as does pretty much everyone else in the Training Compound (Tseng does, however, have the benefit of high-tech security cameras everywhere to actually catch Reno in the act… sometimes :p) Lots of people thought that Reno was going to kill Marten, which makes me happy, since that's the impression I wanted to give :) Reno is indeed a sneaky, clever little bastard though ;) I don't really have any personal knowledge of how to poison/gas someone, just did a bit of research to try and find what I needed. Still disappointed that I couldn't find the name of a neurotoxin that would suit my needs though :( I pretty much adore the tech geeks; haven't developed Whisper enough yet to like him overly much though, although we'll get to see him later on ;) As far as Seph, Zack, and various other characters that I'm sure many of you are curious about… well, you'll see ;) I've got plans for many of them (ok, so I have plans for _most_ of them) but I'm still figuring out how to begin working them in. Seph was kind of easy to sneak in there, but introducing other Soldiers might take a while, especially since Reno is still stuck in Turk-Trainee-Land.

And I love all of you too :) Hope you enjoyed the ridiculousness of this chapter; I was going to continue on, but I thought Reno's note to Rude was a nice stopping point, and the next part fits better with Ch. 13 anyway. So, look for that to come out soon, since I already have it outlined and ready to be typed :)

Please point out errors and such, as per usual ;)


	16. Ch 13 Assignments

**Warnings: **Angst, drunkenness, some good 'ol Turk bonding time.

* * *

_Chapter Thirteen – Assignments_

* * *

The car door slammed, and Reno couldn't resist smirking as the Turk who had been occupying the driver's seat stormed by him. '_There goes another one, off to tell Tseng that he can't stand me and refuses to work with me again._' His amusement was short-lived, and he sighed. Yeah, there went another one. Another senior Turk who had been unfortunate enough to be assigned to work with him. Another senior Turk who would not be willing to partner with him when the time came. Another enemy, another name to cross of the list of potential friends. Reno wouldn't be allowed to graduate without a partner.

Shoulders slumped, hands stuffed into pockets, he wandered out of the parking garage and into the daylight. Towards the end of training, every Trainee was sent out on missions designed to ensure that they were reliable in the field. The missions were also to match them up with partners; every Turk had to have a partner, whether they actually went on missions together all the time or not. Thus far, Reno had managed to alienate every single Turk he was assigned to.

He didn't mean to make them angry, honestly. He just… couldn't help it. It wasn't that he didn't like any of them; hell, some of them were pretty cool people. He even wanted to be friends with some of them, to be _liked_ by them. The problem was that he didn't really like _himself_. He had never gotten over what Devin and the others did to him, not really. He hid it well; to the casual observer, he was as good as though the incident had never happened. There was no one to see the look of self-loathing that he often gave himself in the mirror, no one witness to the thoughts spinning through his mind that he really _was_ worthless, just a stupid slum rat who didn't deserve to see the sun. He masked it by acting like a smart-ass, making jokes about anything and _everything_. That's what drove everyone away, and it hurt him every damned time, even if he did feel like he deserved to be alone.

* * *

"I know you two have a… history… but… there really isn't anyone else to send him out with at this point."

Silence.

"It's just a stakeout."

Silence.

"It'll only be one night."

Silence.

"So… he'll meet you in the parking garage at 1900 tomorrow evening, then?"

A shrug, and a nod.

* * *

"What's up, Sunglass-guy?" Rude didn't say anything, watching Reno approach the car. _His_ car. Which was now toilet paper-free.

Reno stopped in front of him, fidgeting a little. He recognized the car, and recognized the stern frown that Rude was currently fixing him with. That look generally didn't bode well for his future.

"Get in."

Deciding that angering Rude this early into the mission probably wasn't such a great idea, Reno complied, climbing into the passenger seat. "Heeey, nice ride." He smirked, running his hand over the leather seat. The other Turks' cars weren't nice like this.

Rude ignored him, climbing into the driver's seat and pulling out of the parking garage without saying another word. Reno frowned, watching him out of the corner of his eye. "You know, it's not polite to ignore people. Especially when they're _trying_ to have a conversation with you. In fact, it's actually kind of _rude_, don't you think? Your mom must have known you would…" Rude swerved to the side of the street, effectively cutting off Reno's monologue. '_Great. I'm about to set a record for the shortest mission ever, with the one guy who everyone says is patient to a fault._' Rude locked the doors, and pulled out a roll of duct tape.

Reno struggled, but Rude was… well, Reno had been right to call the guy a behemoth. Reno didn't really stand a chance. By the time Rude was finished, Reno had duct tape wrapping around his head _four times_ to cover his mouth, and his hands were taped to the seat to prevent him from removing the tape from his head. He glared at Rude for the duration of the stakeout.

* * *

"How did it go?" As normally happened when a senior Turk _didn't_ call halfway through the mission to announce that he wasn't continuing the job with the red-headed Trainee, Tseng was waiting in the parking garage upon their return, practically desperate to hear that _some_one was willing to work with the Trainee.

Rude shrugged. "Fine." Reno rolled his eyes, scalp, face, and hands smarting from where the duct tape had been ripped off, and stalked off, not bothering to dignify either Turk with a response. '_Yeah, fucking fine. Right…_'

* * *

Reno would never admit it to anyone else, but he was nervous. Graduation. He had been a resident at the Turk Training Center for nine months. He had passed his classes, his exams, and somehow even his assignments. Now he sat in an uncomfortable metal chair in the middle of the auditorium, along with 37 other soon-to-be Turks. Training Group 713 had started with approximately 200 Trainees; most had dropped before the Deadline. The rest of them were about to walk across the auditorium stage and receive their first copy of the Turk Field Manual, the only official "document" that recognized their graduation; even the Library didn't contain a copy of the Field Manual.

Reno glanced up into the stands. As predicted, he didn't really know anyone there. He recognized a few parents from when they had visited their kids, but he obviously didn't have any of his own to invite. He hadn't ever told his other "family" down in the slums – Mel, Sonny, and the gang – that he was leaving to become a Turk; as far as they knew, he had died after the Reaping. That left… no one. He sighed. It was probably better that way… nobody that he knew would be there to witness his humiliation when he wasn't called up on the stage as a result of not having a partner. All of the other Trainees knew who they'd be paired up with by now; all _he _knew was that he'd pissed all of the other Turks off.

Giving an inaudible sigh, he stared at the back of the seat on front of him. He probably shouldn't have even bothered showing up… the other Trainees all knew that none of the Turks had declared for him, and they'd been whispering about the fact that he wasn't going to graduate for a couple of weeks now. He was starting to get tired of crying himself to sleep at night.

The double-doors opened at the back of the auditorium, and there was a stir amongst the Turks, who were seated in their own section of the bleachers. Curious, and wanting something to distract him from his melancholy anyway, Reno turned his head to look. Pale white skin, huge glasses thick enough that Reno could see his eyes from all the way over _here_… was that _Whisper_?

The albino Turk was wearing a suit that Reno had never seen on him before, dark and clean and tailored, looking as sharp as anything that Rude ever wore. His hair was clipped neatly, the normally-scruffy whiskers on his face equally trimmed. He hadn't left the Development room in _seven years_ – he even kept his own cot in a small back room. Whisper ascended the steps into the bleachers, ignoring the astounded looks that he was receiving from the other Turks. They all knew of him, and a few even remembered him from their own days as Trainees, but nobody understood why the hell he was suddenly showing up in public for a graduation ceremony.

He reached an empty seat and turned, scanning the rows of Trainees in the center of the auditorium before his eyes landed on Reno. Beaming, he flashed him a thumbs up, and Reno smiled a real smile for the first time in… well, for the first time since Sim had betrayed him, honestly. He relaxed, turning back towards the front of the auditorium as Whisper sat down. It looked like he had a friend up there to watch him graduate after all.

* * *

The euphoria brought on by Whisper's arrival faded slowly through the evening, leaving him jittery and slightly nauseous by the time the Trainees were finally called across the stage. The names weren't in alphabetical order; rather, they were called in ranking order, from lowest to highest. Unfortunately, Tseng wasn't saying what rank each person was, and Reno hadn't been paying attention when the first few were called onto the stage, leaving him unable to determine how many people had been called. When his name _wasn't_ called towards the beginning, he started to feel dizzy. His instructors hated him. Pretty much _everyone_ hated him; there was no _way_ he had ranked very highly in the Training Group. Everyone was going to be called up there except him. He would be left sitting alone in the middle of that damned auditorium, with everybody and their brother, _literally_, watching him in contempt. Even _Whisper_, the one person who held some semblance of respect for Reno, would probably be disgusted, annoyed that he'd left his room for the first time in years just to see a failure.

The center of the auditorium slowly emptied, with each new Turk's partner meeting them on the stage to present the Field Manual and a brief speech, and Reno had to fight to keep from hyperventilating when he was suddenly alone in those cold metal seats. The only Turks left on stage were Tseng, Rude, and Elena, all of whom had to be there for the ceremony anyway. The new Turks, his former classmates, stood with their new partners to the side, Field Manuals clutched in their hands. They were all staring at him; he felt like he was the lone target in a shooting gallery.

"Reno." Reno nearly jumped out of his skin, turning from his classmates' stares to watch Tseng. "Ranked number one in Training Group 713. Partnered by Rude." Reno stared. '_Seriously?_'

He didn't realize that he'd said it out loud until the people in the stands chuckled, and Tseng sighed, doing his best not to outright scowl at the person he'd just proclaimed to be the best in his class. Reno, for his part, did his best not to blush, and climbed to his feet. The other Turks, new and old alike, began to whisper to each other, most of them surprised that he'd managed to rank number one, and _all_ of them surprised that Rude had selected him for a partner. Rude hadn't had a partner for nearly four years now; everyone had always assumed that he just hated people, and that's why he never spoke to anyone or removed his sunglasses.

Reno walked up the stairs to the stage, wondering if Rude was going to give a speech like everyone else. Thus far, the longest sentence he'd ever heard the man utter was during his move-in, when he'd told Reno how long he had before he needed to report to the gym; he wasn't sure if the guy was capable of actually saying anything longer than that.

To his surprise, Rude handed him a long box along with the Field Manual. To his _lack_ of surprise, Rude didn't give a speech, simply nodding at him and moving over to where the other newly-partnered Turks were standing. Reno smirked and followed him, resisting the urge to rip open the box, and lined up with the others, who were apparently waiting for a group photo. Several stupid smiles and speeches and seven blinding flashes later, and they were done. Graduated. Turks.

Reno grinned, stuffing his Field Manual into a pocket and pulling off the lid of the box. Inside was… a stick. He pulled it out, setting the box on the floor by his feet. The other Turks dispersed to meet with their families, but Rude hovered curiously; the lab techs hadn't told him what was in the box, just asked him to give it to Reno, and he had resisted the urge to open it without permission.

The handle of the rod was wrapped with a fine black leather, perfectly matching the leash and wrist band that were attached by finely-crafted silver clasps. There was a shorter leather-wrapped section a few inches apart from the main grip, making it possible for the rod to be wielded with two hands if necessary. The rod itself was made of a new metal alloy that neither Rude nor Reno was able to identify. It was collapsible, and measured approximately 3 feet when collapsed, 5 when extended. Two materia slots adorned the space between the primary and secondary grips, and a sliding switch that allowed for a power-level selection completed the weapon. Glancing down at the box, Rude noticed a folded note in the bottom and pulled it out, handing it to Reno.

'_Its official name is the Electro-Magnetic Rod; we call it the EMR for short. We've made all of the modifications that you asked about, including replacing the battery with a special cell that was just developed recently; the maximum power output is 347 percent greater than the original model. You'll have to drop by one night and leave a note letting us know how it works for you._

_Congrats, by the way._'

Reno smiled, handing the note to Rude and strapping the EMR to his wrist. Rude read the note and shook his head. The tech geeks had ignored him for years; how did Reno manage to make friends with them so easily?

"Well, that settles it." Rude looked at Reno curiously, as did Tseng and Elena, who had just walked up to them. "We are going drinking." Reno tapped Rude on the shoulder with the EMR to emphasize his point. Rude stared. Reno stared back. "What?" Silence. "Aw, come on, Rude. It's my graduation. You _have_ to go out and celebrate with me." More silence. "Please?" Rude sighed, then shrugged. Reno hissed out a "_Yesss_" and did an impromptu victory dance. Tseng and Elena merely stared. Rude was going to go out and drink? This they _had_ to see.

* * *

_Mainstreet_ was packed again, this time with Turks and Soldiers, the Trainees had all graduated, and the Cadets were stuck preparing for their final Field Exercises. The Soldiers were the first thing that Reno really noticed, since Sephiroth was there and called him over immediately.

Rude, who was looking a little lost and perhaps slightly panicked in the social environment, followed close on his heels, and Tseng and Elena trailed them as much for the potential entertainment factor as anything else.

Reno arrived next to Sephiroth, eyes glancing over the three Soldiers First Class who were sitting with him before smirking at the General. "What's up, Gargantuan? I didn't know they invited mutants to Turk celebrations." The Soldier to Sephiroth's left choked on his drink in an attempt not to laugh, and Sephiroth smiled.

"Brat, meet my idiot of a second-in-command, Zack Fair. Zackary, try not to die while I'm seated at the table with you; it would look bad." Zack grinned, holding back his bubbling coughs, and waved at Reno, his almost-purple eyes sparkling. Reno laughed and nodded in response, and Sephiroth moved on to his two other companions. "My other miserable cohorts who were drug along for the event: Angeal," the other black-haired Soldier nodded gravely, without smiling, "and Genesis." The ginger-haired Soldier didn't even look up from the book he was reading, merely waving a languid hand in Reno's general direction as a form of acknowledgment. Reno stretched to try and see what Genesis was reading, but all he could tell was that it was some kind of play.

"_Loveless_. It's all he _ever_ reads." Zack sounded highly exasperated, staring at Genesis as though he were a lost cause. Reno had heard about _Loveless_, although he'd never read or watched it, and silently agree that Genesis probably _was_.

"In any case," Sephiroth continued, "I just wanted to buy you a drink in congratulations." A glass full of some unknown but suspiciously-smelling substance was at his fingertips a moment later, and the General handed it over, smirking when Reno was foolish enough to take a sniff and almost gagged. Raising his own glass, he made a toast. "To Reno, for graduating against everyone else's expectations, and for finally finding someone who wouldn't rather stuff his head down a toilet than work with him." Everyone in the vicinity, well aware of Reno's reputation, laughed, cheered, and downed their drinks. Reno glared at Sephiroth, silently vowing revenge with the look in his eyes, and chugged whatever Sephiroth had just given him. It tasted about as bad as it smelled, and Reno coughed and spluttered, tossing the glass indignantly when Sephiroth laughed at him.

"Hey! I don't know if anyone ever told you, Seph, but battery acid really isn't an acceptable substitute for a good drink."

Sephiroth chuckled, then waved him away. "Okay, okay. I'll keep that in mind." He smirked. "Now go away and drink somewhere else. I've heard that people wind up with food poisoning around you, and I'd hate to have to be throwing up tomorrow." Reno winked, the closest he'd ever come to admitting to poisoning Aika, and sauntered off, Rude in tow. Tseng and Elena settled at Sephiroth's table, positioning themselves where they could keep an eye on the redhead and his partner. A known troublemaker and a man who never drank in public was probably a recipe for disaster in a bar like this, and they wanted to make sure they'd be able to see all of the fun from where they were at.

* * *

The rest of the evening passed by in a drunken blur for both Reno and Rude. There were many toasts to the new Turks that night, and Reno made sure that Rude drank for every one of them, and then some. By the time they finally left the bar, well beyond the time that _Mainstreet_ usually closed, both Turks were officially smashed. The next thing Reno remembered with any sort of clarity was flopping down on the couch at Rude's apartment, with neither of them 100 sure how they'd arrived there. More drinks followed, and Reno wound up spilling out his "life story" (which was primarily a bunch of babble about his baby brother's "cool green eyes") to Rude, who returned the favor with some drunken rambling about his own brother and sister, none of which Reno remembered in the morning anyway.

* * *

"Morning" announced itself in the form of bright sunrays spilling through the open blinds of Rude's living room directly onto their faces. Reno grumbled and whimpered incoherently, shifting around in an abortive attempt at fleeing from the sun, unintentionally waking Rude and making him fall onto the floor. Rude sat up, glasses askew, and looked around, absently wiping a stream of drool off of his chin and onto Reno's pants. He looked around blankly for several moments before realizing that the sun was in his eyes, and that the windows to his living room faced west. Groaning, he lurched to his feet, righting his sunglasses with one hand and shaking Reno awake with the other.

Reno flailed, convinced in his half-conscious state that he was trapped in some kind of explosion or earthquake, and nearly hit Rude in the face before he finally woke up enough to realize what was going on. His grumbling started anew. "Rude…it's the day after a party. _Why_ are we awake right now? The whole point of partying is so that you can sleep the entire next d- did you _drool_ on me?" Rude looked away, straightening the tie that he'd miraculously survived the night with, and Reno glared, wiping the drool off of his forehead. "Not cool, partner. _Not_ cool."

Rude pretended like nothing had happened, and ignored him. "We're late for work."

"We have to go to work today?" Rude nodded, and Reno sighed, aggravated, and flopped back over on the couch. "I don't want to go to work." Rude shrugged. "Make me breakfast?" Rude stared, hesitated, and shrugged again, making his way to the kitchen. It was probably the least he could do for drooling on Reno's face. Reno smirked, curling up on the couch to wait for food to be ready, and fell back asleep.

The next time he woke up, it was to the smell of pancakes. He staggered into the kitchen, smiling when he saw two places set at the table, complete with full glasses of orange juice and coffee. "Wow, Rude. I think I need to keep you if you're going to treat me like this." Rude paused, confused, and shrugged, deciding that it would take too much effort and arguing to make Reno realize that Rude had picked _him_, and not the other way around. He set the pancakes in the table.

"Dig in." Reno complied cheerfully, noticing happily that the pancakes had chocolate chips and bananas in them. The two ate in relative silence, pointing at butter and syrup when they wanted something and otherwise focusing entirely on their food. A short stack of dishes and two quick showers later, and they were dressed and ready to go, Reno's EMR now taking up permanent residence attached to his wrist. A note stuck on the dashboard of Rude's car informed them that Tseng and Elena had driven them to Rude's apartment, clearing up the confusion of how they'd gotten there without dying along the way, and Rude pulled out of the parking lot, ignoring Reno's pleas to let him drive.

* * *

The drive to the office had passed by uneventfully, with Rude using silence as a means of ignoring Reno's arguments as to why he should be allowed to drive. He also used silence, and his mirrored glasses, to cover his amazement at Reno's ability to carry on a half-hour conversation all by himself.

Once at the ShinRa building, Reno led the way to the office, using his stacks of forged keycards to get there. Rude shook his head, trying not to laugh, and decided that as soon as they had moved Reno into the office, he would have to take the new Turk to get an all-access keycard, to save him the trouble of carrying twenty of them around in his pocket.

The office, which had long since been cleaned of all traces of the evil smiley faces, now had two desks, two sets of filing cabinets, and a double wardrobe in it. Otherwise, nothing was particularly different from Reno's last (illegal) visit here. Same boring grey carpet, white walls, speckled ceiling. "This place sucks." Rude grunted, mostly agreeing with the statement, and Reno continued, collapsing into his chair and staring up at the ceiling. "I'm going to decorate this place, 'kay?" Rude shrugged, not really paying a lot of attention, and hung his jacket on the back of his own chair, sitting down and rolling up to his desk. Reno zeroed in on him instantly. "Why don't I have a rolley chair?"

"I stole mine from Heidegger." Reno stared.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Not sure why he had it anyway; he's too fat to fit in it." Reno grinned.

"Mission number one: find a fat exec who doesn't fit in his chair and liberate it. For the good of the chair, of course." Rude smirked and unlocked his filing cabinet, pulling out the first of the day's paperwork to get started on. Reno shifted, about to ask what he was supposed to do, when a knock came on the door.

It opened without waiting for an answer, and Tseng walked in. "Fill these out. Once you're done, Rude can take you around to get your keycard and introduce you to anyone you don't know. I'm sure you've already taken your own tour of the building." He dropped an inch-thick stack of paperwork on Reno's desk and walked out before the redhead could protest. Reno protested to Rude instead.

"Why do I have _paperwork_? I haven't even been here one day yet!" Rude shrugged, not showing any signs of sympathy, and Reno growled, pulling the first paper off of the stack.

"Report on Projected Expenditure for Office Supplies."

Reno groaned, burying his head on his arms. Today was going to be a long day.

* * *

**A/N:**

Yaay, Reno made it :) And Whisper left his cave in a show of support :) We also see the 1st Class Soldiers (Cloud, in case you didn't guess, is one of the cadets prepping for Field Exercises, and therefore wasn't there; we'll meet him later on).

I got the idea for the pancakes from another fanfic (a KH one, don't remember the name of it :( ). I've had pancakes with chocolate chips in them, but not bananas, and it sounded really good when I read about them, so I decided to use them here. Eventually I'll make some for myself and see how they work :p

Also snuck in another mention of Reno's brother ;)

**Reviews**

**Graydevilforver** - Heh, I do that all the time, drives me nuts . Thanks for taking the time to review again though ;) We'll continue seeing pranks pulled here and there, although they might start revolving around Reno's other "enemies", hehe

**Paopu** – Rude is indeed a sneaky individual :) Next chapter or two should show some more of that as well… Reno's life is starting to look up a bit now, and won't have too many seriously dark moments now that he's made it to being a Turk… for a while at least :p

**Jennie** – hehe, Reno's going to make Rude break out of his shell a **lot** in this story… should be fun :) And hey, I had an excuse… or three… for skipping class :p Unfortunately, now I have two exams today that I'm not ready for sigh (and here I go updating instead of cramming for them… d'oh .)

**Tala** – glad you enjoyed it :)

**Namesake** – the smiley faces will return, albeit in a more benign manner. Reno didn't have the EMR yet, just kind of knew that it existed; he has a while of practicing with it now before he can use the diamond effect now ;)

**Mistbender** – pranks and drunken bonding time, guaranteed success for good working relationships :p

**Soppakulho** – exams… ugh. I hope there are some updates from the stories I'm watching myself after today is done, lol. I could use some good stuff for after exams -- Glad I seemed to make your day ;)

**Extrixan** – he's definitely bored in classes; oh, the pains of being a genius in secret (wish I had that problem :p) Rude's got a lot more up his sleeve, too ;) stay tuned!

**Earthbender** – the banter doesn't end here ;) Who ever figured Rude for a drooler? :p

As usual, typos bad and such… next update to come… soon, heh. It's not typed out yet, although the section after it is… funny how that works :p


	17. Int 3,5 Ears in the,,,Oops

**Warnings:** This is a massive author's note, which I know is technically not allowed, but… please bear with me and read it through.

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__

Interlude 3.5 – Ears in the… Oops.

* * *

So, yesterday I uploaded a little snippet of humor with the intention of brightening my day a bit, and fulfilling my own craving to post something. Unfortunately for the story, the Interlude, and Reno, life simply isn't that bright and lighthearted for our much-abused protagonist yet, and I'm not yet ready to end his suffering.

As a result, that particular snippet is no longer a part of this story. I'm uploading it as a separate one-shot instead of cutting it entirely, but it just doesn't fit properly into the framework of this story as it's written. I'll be making reference to the incident later on in _Reaper_ (it's not like Reno never gets to have any fun moments in his life, after all), but there's also a chance that it will be replaced by another side-story/Interlude that meshes a little better with the main body of the story.

That said, I'm pleased to announce that my "dilly-dallying" over the story's plot is at an end (for now :p). Now that the insurmountable road-block presented by Interlude 3 has been removed, the story is ready to continue along the path that I've got planned for it. The next chapter or two might be a bit dark (surprise surprise! But I never did _really_ tie off the fact that Reno has some serious self-esteem issues, so…), but there is light on the horizon of Reno's sad little world. And some semi-sickening fluff. And some yaoi. Eventually :p But Rude and Reno have some personal issues to work out before they can get to that point in their relationship.

With regards to those particular issues, I'd like to briefly mention what you can expect to learn about in the upcoming chapters:

-Rude's family

-Why Rude, a guy who's been a Turk for _seven years_, has no partner, even though I definitely stated that all Turks have to have one…

-Why Rude and Reno really _do_ get shafted with the uninteresting and mostly unimportant missions – Reno graduated (somehow) but does he actually have what it takes? .

-What the fuck happened to Mel and Sonny and all of Reno's other friends in the Slums when he went top-side? Talk about a massive friggin' plot hole :p

As luck might have it, I **need your help**! I need the name of a city that sounds vaguely FF7-ish, but not too quaint, that can be completely destroyed during this story (so I can't really just snag a Crisis Core town or something and use that :( ) Whoever helps me come up with a good name gets a... cameo appearance

Aaand finally… I wanted to make mention that this story still has a ways to go before it's done, and I still _do_ have all of my ideas and such for it, even if it might take me a little while sometimes to put them down on paper, so never fear, I'm not going to disappear on some year-long hiatus or any crap like that, and I'm not going to just cut the story off and call it quits. And there's a nice (or dark and angsty…) little side-story-ish thing that will eventually be written to back this up (just what _is_ the deal with Reno's brother, anyway? ;) )

* * *

Anyway. I did get some reviews for Interlude 3, but I'm going to respond to those over where I have that "story" posted (look for it under the title _Ears in the Walls_).

I will, however, mention to **Mistbender** that as soon as I can get off my ass and actually do some grocery shopping, I'm adding your cookie ingredients to my shopping list so that I can try them out :) And I'll let you know how the pancakes turn out :p

I will also re-post the review responses that I had tacked onto the end of Int.3 so that they don't get lost here:

**Reviews**

Once again, I have a huge chunk of reviews, and not enough time to reply to each one individually, so…

I'm glad I'm still making people freak out with happiness (or something :p) when you guys see updates from me. Makes my day to know that I'm making someone else's ;) It sounds like a couple of people have made banana or banana-chocolate-chip pancakes… and now I'm jealous and really really need to buy some damned Bisquick :p

Lucky Charms Puff Cookies?!

There was a point when I was going to go into great detail with Reno's training, but… I don't know. I think maybe I kind of rushed that part of the story. I have other ideas for Reno-centric stories floating around in my head, that I might type out after I'm done with this story (or maybe I'll do some of the one-shots while I'm working on this, not sure…). Some of those plots do involve his specific training, so maybe you guys will get to see some of my thoughts on that stuff…? Otherwise, unless I do shitloads of flashbacks with this story, I've skimmed past those parts too quickly to make up for it now.

I'm trying my best not to gloss over Reno's relationships with other people in this story in the same fashion, so I'm trying to focus on keeping people from randomly appearing and disappearing in his life instead of focusing on training and such (for example, wtf ever happened to Mel, Sonny, etc? They're still there, and Reno will be making a trip down to the Slums soon to catch up with them, but… juggling characters is a pain in the ass :( Hopefully I can keep them all there and interacting properly).

At least I can say for sure that Reno-Rude interactions will continue to be… interesting :p and hopefully entertaining. Reno's definitely not letting Rude live down the drooling incident any time soon, lol.

I've also noticed that I have 2 or 3 new readers, which made me incredibly happy to see. I love all of you guys who keep coming back to read and review and such, but it's really cool to have new faces pop in to let me know that they just started reading and are enjoying the story. I also managed to get someone else hooked on _Iter Impius_, which made me kind of giggle evilly I suppose… I've been listening to it myself a lot the past few days, so I was happy to see that someone else has been introduced to it (I've also been listening to _Girlfriend_ by Avril Lavigne a lot the past few days, but… that has nothing to do with anything. I think O.o)

Aaanyway. Now that I've posted a review-response section longer than the actual "chapter"… I have to get ready for my next class today :( Hopefully I can hash out some more plot and another chapter within the next week or so; if not, at least you can rest secure knowing that I have Fall Break coming up in 2 weeks, during which time I will probably do nothing except rot my brain with video games and fanfics :p


	18. Ch 14 Bitter Tears, Bitter Memories

**Warnings: **Language. Angst. Fluffy angst.

* * *

_Chapter 14 – Bitter Tears, Bitter Memories_

* * *

The bar was quiet for a Friday night; only a small handful of patrons sat at the tables, and only one person sat at the bar, talking quietly with the bartender. The soft murmur of people talking filled the room, swirling dust motes giving the entire scene a sleepy appearance. The talking stopped entirely when the door opened, and a Turk strode into the room.

The bartender tensed, noticing the suit before anything else, and cleared his throat quietly, alerting his friend. The grey-haired young man turned warily, too soon to observe the bartender's serious face turn into a grin, and zeroed in on the suit as well. It took him a moment to connect the smirking face attached to the suit with his memories. "_Reno_?"

Reno laughed, taking the last steps in a few short bounds. "'Sup Sonny, Mel? Long time no see." His eyes sparkled with mischief, well aware of how unexpected his visit was. He seemed to have a really bad habit of disappearing for many months at a time, and reappearing when everyone thought he was dead; his picture was back up on the wall.

Following the redhead's gaze to the wall, Mel exhaled a gust of breath, shook his head, and finally laughed, hopping over the bar to catch Reno up in a tight hug. "I should just start counting from the time you disappear; nine months again, huh? You're impossible, kid." Reno only smirked, accepting Sonny's clap on the back with good grace, and sat down on a barstool, looking over at Mel expectantly.

"So, bartender, you gonna get me a beer or what?" Mel chuckled, shaking his head again, and scooted back over to his side of the bar.

* * *

The rest of the evening passed quietly. The bar never really got busy, and Mel spent most of his time talking to Sonny and Reno, catching up on the past nine months. Reno told them about life as a Trainee, although he had to be careful not to tell them anything particularly useful about the company. He skated over his troubles with Devin's gang and with making friends amongst the Turks and other Trainees, painting a somewhat idyllic image of his life above the Plate. Both older men read between the lines easily enough, but they remained silent about it, catching him up on the happenings of his old friends and the shifting atmosphere of the Slums instead.

The atmosphere had indeed shifted, and not for the better. Reno's disappearance after the Reaping had given rise to rumors that the Reaper, the largest authority figure below the Plate, was dead. His continued absence during the months following had only seemed to confirm the rumors, and a new level of lawlessness had taken root in the Slums. New gangs, young and especially violent and careless in their youth and inexperience, roamed the streets, spreading like a plague into the sectors surrounding Sector 4. Gang territories had shifted greatly as a result, and although the Reaper's domain was still (mostly) uncontested, it wouldn't be long before the gangs began to carve that up as well.

With the decline of authority and rise in violence came a rise in drug trafficking. Dirty money and diseases flowed freely, giving birth to a new level of crime in the under-city. The money wound up feeding into the gangs, who in turn fed the drug machine, creating a dark cycle of blood money and brutality that seemed to only be worsening as time went on. Reno sighed, wondering if Tseng knew of the problems appearing below the Plate. He didn't particularly want to be the one to bring it up, since he was reasonably sure that Tseng didn't like him, but… he couldn't take care of the problems himself now that he was contracted to the Turks, and he didn't want to see "his" city suffer.

Downing the rest of his drink, he stood to leave, tossing some gil down next to his empty glass. Sonny cocked an eyebrow. "We gonna see you around more than once a year from now on?"

Reno rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, rub it in… I probably won't be able to stop by unless it's on the weekends, but tell Myrna and all them that I'll stop by again some time soon." Sonny and Mel nodded, watching him put his jacket back on.

"Reno." Reno paused on his way to the door, turning to glance back at Sonny. "I'm still around you know, in case you need something." '_Information. A sounding board for ideas. A friend…_' Reno gazed at him quietly for a moment before nodding and turning for the door again. He didn't look back this time.

* * *

Tseng accepted Reno's assessment of the situation below the Plate as he accepted everything: quietly, with a polite nod and a "thank you" and a general indication that Reno was now dismissed. If anything was being done by ShinRa or the Turks to remedy to growing problem, Reno was never informed.

The following months passed by in monotony for Reno. He had paperwork to do every day; some of it was relevant and interesting, but most seemed to serve no real purpose other than to keep him busy, and he got bored with it quickly. Missions consisted primarily of stakeouts, and were worse than the paperwork. Rude mostly ignored him during the missions, staring out the window instead, and eventually Reno gave up at trying to fill the silence with his own empty words. Rude never talked back anyway, and he didn't agree to go out on the town with Reno again.

As far as Reno was concerned, it only made sense; nobody _really_ wanted to be his partner anyway.

* * *

Reno stalked forward on the balls of his feet, barely refraining from bounding ahead. Two months. Two _months_, and they were finally on a real mission. Not a stakeout. Not some stupid bodyguard assignment. An actual fucking _job_. It wasn't the coolest mission that Reno could imagine; they weren't going undercover in some exotic country to catch a terrorist, or blowing something up, or getting involved in some kind of high-speed chase, or flying anywhere, or blowing something up… But at least they weren't sitting in a damned car watching an empty building for an evening.

Actually, if Reno thought about it, he'd have to admit that the mission was probably kind of boring, and only seemed fun because it was something different. The Turks normally assigned to patrol the Slums had been catching wind of a new drug ring in the city; with the drugs came blood, and people had begun disappearing off of the streets. It wasn't necessarily any worse than the other crime organizations that festered below the plate, but Tseng had decided to try and nip this one in the bud _before_ it became (another) serious issue. Apparently he hadn't ignored Reno's report on the Slum situation quite as much as Reno had thought. In any case, there was an informant who was willing to talk, and Rude and Reno were assigned the task. Reno suspected it was because he was from the Slums himself, and would be able to relate to the guy; either that or they expected Rude to intimidate him into talking if the snitch changed his mind. Whatever the reason, Reno was happy to be walking the street (even if they guy would probably talk without having to resort to any kind of "persuasive measures"), and his restless energy showed it.

He wasn't, however, too excited to notice when something was amiss. The streets were quiet.

Sector 3, while as much of a Slum as pretty much everywhere else, was normally a busy Sector, with plenty of shops and cafés for people to be travelling to and from. It wasn't normal for there to be no sounds, the streets empty.

Reno stopped instantly, tense and silent. Rude, who didn't spend a lot of time in Sector 3, moved to his side, eyes roving around behind his dark shades. He knew something was wrong by Reno's guarded posture, but he wasn't sure what. He turned to ask what was wrong, just in time for _them_ to walk around the corner.

_Slink_ was a more accurate description of how the seven street toughs moved. They were thin and wiry, as most people from the Slums were, and had the feral, half-starved expressions that all of the new, young gangs wore. Those feral looks turned into feral _grins_ when they spotted Rude and Reno, and they made a beeline for the two Turks.

Rude, for his part, was confused. These youths looked like predators on the attack, but nobody in their right mind attacked a Turk down here, not in broad daylight and not without making it a surprise ambush. _Certainly_ not with only seven people!

Reno, on the other hand, was less surprised and more angry. He knew from Sonny and Mel that things had changed down here; the new gangs were too violent to know caution, and too young to care about the old Code. That meant that they were too stupid to know to leave the Turks alone, which Reno kind of expected and accepted with a kind of resignation. What angered him was they clearly had no idea who he was, or if they did chose not to care. Reno had never exactly paraded around the fact that he was the Reaper – that probably would have been a tad suicidal – but at the very least the old gangs knew, and always informed their new members to stay out of his way. This close to Sector 4, this errant gang should have known, even if they weren't around eleven months ago. Reno knew that his old territory was on the verge of being contested in the Wars, but he also knew, courtesy of Sonny, that his name and face were still well-recognized throughout the Lower City. These trashy, filthy fucking _brats_ should know better.

They obviously _didn't_, and he scowled when they got close. '_Scum._'

They smiled, cold shark-like sneers, and fanned out, circling around the Turks and trapping them against the building that they stood next to. Reno tensed, muscles coiled and balanced on the balls of his feet, but gave no other indication that he was concerned. Rude sighed, shifting slightly to give himself a little more working space from his partner. This obviously wasn't going to turn out very well.

"Well, well, well. What do we have _here_?" The apparent leader of the gang, a lean teenager with mousy hair and cold eyes, chuckled. "Interlopers."

Reno rolled his eyes. "Look, why don't you stop being a fuckin' twat and get the fuck out of my face. Little shitbags like you give street rats a bad name." And that was all it took.

* * *

Rude was furious, waiting in a corner of the hospital room for the doctor to finish stitching Reno up and leave.

He wasn't angry about Reno insulting the gang leader into fighting; he had kind of expected that. He wasn't even particularly mad about the fact that Reno had gotten himself hurt; in a seven to two fight, the chances of walking away unscathed weren't really likely, especially when they started off surrounded. No, he was _angry_ that Reno had apparently decided that he could take on all seven of them by _himself_ and had proceeded to attempt exactly that, completely ignoring the fact that Rude was there, that his _partner_ was there, to guard his back, to share some of the work, to make sure that he didn't get _shot in the arm!_

Rude gritted his teeth, the low sound making the doctor flinch and speed up his bandaging. Reno continued staring at the floor, avoiding looking at him as much as possible. Rude glared at him from behind his sunglasses, and the doctor scrambled to finish, rushing out as soon as he could. Now it was Reno's turn to flinch, expecting Rude to explode on him the instant the doctor was out of the room. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the dark aura practically _oozing_ from Rude's pores was his fault, and he braced himself, half-expecting for Rude to knock him off the examining table. Rude, of course, did no such thing.

He straightened slowly from where he had been leaning against the wall, jerking sharply at the hem of his jacket to remove an invisible crease, tugging to straighten the already perfectly straight tie. He then paced over to the examining table, slowly and deliberately, purposefully taking his time. He crossed his arms when he got there, staring wordlessly at his partner for several long, agonizing moments before he finally spoke. His words game out in a low, rumbling growl.

"What were you _thinking_?" The disapproval and _disappointment_ in his voice made Reno cringe, and he didn't answer, looking further away and trying to restrain himself from curling up into a ball. He had known Rude was _mad_ at him since the fight ended, but he hadn't actually felt _bad_ about it until Rude spoke. Rude, discerning that Reno wasn't going to respond, continued. "Were you _trying_ to get hurt? Did you _forget_ that you had a partner? Do you not _realize_ that I'm your partner to back you up?" His tone never varied, never rose in pitch, and Reno shuffled where he was sitting, transferring easily from guilty to sullen.

"I don't need anyone to back me up." If he wasn't feeling guilty and in pain enough to still be upset, his manner would have been best described as sulking. That was all it took for Rude to finally snap.

"_You just got __**shot**__, you hare-brained __**idiot**__! You obviously can't be trusted to do something on your own __**without**__ backup, or you'll wind up getting yourself __**killed**__! What the hell is the __**matter**__ with you?_" Rude's voice carried down the hall, and every doctor and nurse within hearing distance quickly scurried _out_ of hearing distance, not wanting to be anywhere near the enraged Turk when he sounded like that. Reno, on the other hand, never _had_ taken very well to being yelled at, and Rude's outburst made him surge to his feet, gone from sullen to furious as quickly as he'd gone from guilty to sullen.

"You act like you're so damned perfect, Rude, like you know every fucking thing there is to know about me, and I should be _grateful_ that you're working with me and _grateful_ that I'm here and fucking _happy_ to have a partner! _You don't know anything __**about**__ me, and you don't __**care**__! Why the fuck should I be __**happy**__ to have you as a partner, when you're only here because there was __**no other choice**__? Why should I want a partner at __**all**__? I don't need another person to __**trust**__ and __**rely on**__ and __**care about**__ only to turn around and have them __**stab me in the back**__!_" He stopped, sides heaving, and Rude stared, confused. No other choice? Stabbed in the back? He blinked and opened his mouth, but Reno was gone before he could ask, sprinting down the hall and out of the hospital and into the darkness.

Rude stared at the blood on the examining table, mind working to try and process what had just happened. He turned, following Reno's path out of the hospital at a much slower pace, and paused just outside the door. Night had fallen while they were inside, and it was raining.

* * *

There was very little dust at Hole in the Wall; Reno's renovations had made the building nearly airtight, and the never-ending dust of the Slums had left his home virtually untouched. Inside of the Lab, there was no dust at all; the airseal had made sure of that. The building was quiet, as large and empty as Reno would have remembered it, had he allowed himself to ever think of the place like that. He hadn't, either during the time he'd lived there before or while he'd been with the Turks. Thoughts like that were dangerous; the loneliness that they invoked tended towards the unbearable in the environments that Reno was used to. Now, alone again in the vacant house, it was difficult to keep the emptiness, and the loneliness, at bay. Curled up in a corner of the Lab, with Alyse's painting smiling down at him and his old, battered bear clutched in his lap, he wept, the tears tracing silent paths down his cheeks. There was no point to making noise when he cried; no one was there to hear him anyway.

* * *

The old photograph crumpled in Rude's fist, and he bowed his head, closing his eyes tightly against the old pain. It had been four years since his last partner, four years since the betrayal, four years since his death… The photograph made a crinkling noise, and Rude forced his fist to open, smoothing the picture flat against his coffee table. He and his partner smiled up out of the photo, taken seven years ago when Rude had graduated. A lot had changed since then.

Rude hadn't wanted another partner, hadn't wanted another weakness that could be used against him, another target for those who would try to take him down. Tseng had allowed it, knowing that Rude was competent in the field and with the understanding that Rude would allow Tseng or Elena to partner him if need be. For four years that had been enough, but Rude never counted on someone like Reno coming along.

The redhead was one of those people who blazed through life on their own wavelength, either sucking people in or scattering them according to their natures. Rude had quickly found himself pulled to the teen's peculiar personality, in spite of all of the pranks and attitudes. When Devin's group of miscreants hurt Reno, Rude felt anger boiling beneath his skin; when every other Senior Turk shunned him, Rude wondered why the Company was full of so many close-minded assholes. When he was finally asked to partner Reno during his final weeks as a Trainee, he smiled – internally, of course. Faced with Reno's wound from this last mission and his own bitter memories, Rude hadn't known what to do, and had snapped, lashing out at his partner to hide his own confusion and concern. Now that Reno had fled and left him to his memories, Rude regretted it. Reno's show of anger had done a poor job at masking his pain, and Rude was too familiar with that kind of pain himself to be fooled into thinking it was physical.

He stood, leaving the wrinkled photograph laying on the table.

* * *

Reno didn't notice when the door opened, or when someone entered the Lab; he was physically and emotionally exhausted, and had slipped into that surreal state between sleeping and waking, face resting on the softly-furred head of the stuffed animal in his arms. A pair of strong arms lifted him, and he found himself cradled in someone's lap, cheek resting against a warm chest. A hand stroked through his hair, and in his drowsy state he allowed it, too tired and hurt to turn away the comfort. He was too tired to be startled when a low voice started speaking to him, and he let the soft voice and hands soothe him, the deep rumbling in the chest and gentle rocking lulling him to sleep.

"I'm sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you… I was worried… I wasn't the last option for you, you were the first choice for me… I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't cry any more…"

* * *

**A/N:**

Holy crap, it took me forever to write this. I'm actually writing this note before I even finish the chapter, because I'm stuck for how to word things for about the 100th time here :( Didn't expect this chapter to be so tough to spit out… I'd say that hopefully the next one won't take so long, but although I know what I want to have happen, most of the scenarios I've been tossing around in my head are completely unrealistic, so it might take me a while to make it actually work :( Rude and Reno will get a REAL real mission though, yay :D

Anyway, a few points below.

Name of zombie city – Claster, if only because Reno can act mentally retarded coming up with rhymes for it :p (City name courtesy of Etrixan)

Reno is still 16 at this point (if I have another full month pass by before the Claster mission, I could be mean and make it happen on his 17th birthday :p)

Got my 100th review! Thanks to Envious Invidia :D

**Reviews:**

**Roadkill**– guess I wound up glossing over Reno's buddies after all… but I suppose I can't just randomly skip over to the Slums and have them all magically appear whenever I remember that they exist, heh. Thanks for the review :)

**Etrixan**– heh, I think you congratulated me on the writer's block thing too soon ;) Thanks for the city names :) If you have a character name or something you'd rather me use than "Etrixan", go ahead and let me know; otherwise, I think I might use some kind of anagram of your name for your "cameo"… I also think I know who you're going to be, too ;) Still plotting though, we'll see :p

**D0rkgoddess**– hehe, I actually update it faster here than on aff too, since the user interface here is so much easier for formatting purposes –grumbles about having to use html tags at aff– anyway :) glad you're enjoying it!

**Vire** – update… soon? What's **that**mean? Lol, I keep sitting down to type more of this, and then I'm like, "wow, I'm really not in the mood to fight with this chapter right now…" and it's been going on for a month now :p glad I finally got THAT out of my system… (for now…)

**Envious Invidia**– Whoo! 100th review! -tacklehug- Thanks :)

As per usual, pointing out typos, plot holes, etc are much appreciated :)


	19. Ch 15 Claster, Pt 1

**Warnings: **some very mild language, and horrible rhyming skills.

* * *

_Chapter Fifteen – Claster_

* * *

"Faster… Master… Plaster… Shafter… No, wait, that one doesn't…"

"_Reno_."

"…Sorry." Reno glanced at Rude out of the corner of his eye, checking to make sure that his partner wasn't actually angry. Satisfied when Rude merely shook his head and continued driving, Reno yawned, settling back in his seat.

A week and a half had passed since the episode in the Slums. After stilted apologies between two people with less-than-perfect social skills and several days of awkward conversations and even more awkward silences, the two Turks had come to the unspoken agreement that neither would talk about the incidents following the failed mission, and that if anybody asked, neither knew what they were talking about. The awkwardness had eased considerably after that, although there was still frequently a fair amount of tension between the two…mainly because Reno had decided that the best way of easing awkwardness was to be annoying, a tactic which had mixed success.

Unfortunately for Rude, the two were now stuck in an SUV together for a twenty-hour drive, giving Reno the perfect opportunity to perfect his technique.

* * *

Approximately 1200 miles to the northeast of Midgar, a town called Claster thrived. The town was fairly new, having sprung up only twenty years ago when a young entrepreneur was traveling the region and discovered a massive freshwater reservoir hidden in a small valley near the ocean. The rocky mountains and cliffs surrounding the valley had previously ensured that the reservoir went undiscovered, but the purchase of a rare mountain chocobo made travel through the hills all too easy.

The town appeared practically overnight. A road was blasted through the mountains to connect the town to Kalm and Midgar; another road was created to connect the town to a nearby inlet, where a small harbor soon materialized. The budding town itself first attracted tourists looking for a vacation spot; it later attracted engineers. ShinRa had begun developing a global satellite system years prior, but the mountainous region of the Eastern Continent had long posed a problem for satellite communications in the area. The flatlands that housed the Chocobo Farm were too arable and important for farming to waste any of the land building satellite relays (not to mention that the lands made highly valuable chocobo grazing grounds). However, there had never been another site in the northeast suitable for building a communications center. The newly-named town of Claster was the perfect opportunity. With the communications center came a small Mako reactor, necessary for generating power to the center. As usual, with the reactor came urbanization, and the small vacation town rapidly expanded.

Unfortunately, nobody involved in the creation of the town was prepared for the earthquakes that plagued it. After the first few upheavals, a small team of scientists was sent to investigate; they quickly determined that the town was located close to the edge of a tectonic plate. Fortunately, the movement of the plates in that corner of the globe was small, and the earthquakes were very minor. Some small modifications were made to the satellite towers to prevent them from collapsing, and life in the town continued uninterrupted for twenty years.

Now, however, something had gone badly wrong.

Two days before Rude and Reno went down into the Slums, a small earthquake shook the isolated town. The communications center reported to Midgar immediately, informing the headquarters housed in the ShinRa Tower that there was no damage to the towers, and that damage to the town was very minimal. The next day, all communications from the town ceased.

ShinRa spent the next few days attempting to contact the center, but all efforts were in vain. No broadcasts reached the town, and phone calls went unanswered. A pass from one of ShinRa's space satellites showed no apparent damage to the town or to the communications center. Concerned by the lack of contact, and suspicious by the fact that the communications didn't cease until nearly a full day _after_ the earthquake ended, executives at the ShinRa headquarters decided that something was very definitely amiss, and appealed to the Turks for help.

After a few more days spent receiving Cures and Mako injections to heal Reno's shoulder, the pair of Turks found themselves reassigned, the missions in the Slums transferred over to another team. Now they were on their way to Claster, forced to take a regular vehicle due to the lack of helicopter refueling stations along the way. Reno stopped complaining about the drive – once he'd finished whining about not being allowed to drive, that is – and had instead busied himself with talking to fill the silence in between radio stations and CDs. His attempts to come up with words that rhymed with "Claster" was his latest attempt at so-called 'conversation', and Rude found himself extremely glad that they had made it into the mountains, and were only about an hour from Claster. The drive was too long to be cooped up with Reno, and there weren't nearly enough rest stops along the way.

* * *

The two looked around uneasily as they drove into the town, Rude slowing the vehicle to a crawl.

"Rude… Where the hell are all of the _people?_" Rude didn't answer, shoulders tense as he gazed around. The town was silent…dead. The town had a population of nearly 20,000; there should have been people walking around. It reminded Rude eerily of the atmosphere in Sector 3 last week, right before everything went wrong. Frowning, he shook off the feeling of foreboding and sped the SUV back up, heading for the reservoir.

"Let's just check on the communications center first; we'll see if we spot anyone on our way." They didn't, and the trip to the center was tense and quiet.

Parking the vehicle at the base of the path that led up to the control room, the pair got out of the vehicle. Rude didn't bother locking it; there was nobody around to worry about taking it anyway. Shuddering slightly at that thought, he started to turn up the path, stopping when he saw Reno.

Reno stared out at the reservoir, eyes wide and an awed expression on his face. The water, sheltered in the small pocket of the mountains, was glassy-smooth and stretched out to form a gleaming surface, reflecting the mountains as though it were a mirror. It was Reno's first time standing in the mountains, and his first time ever seeing a body of water larger than the swimming pool back at the Turk Training Center.

Rude smiled, momentarily forgetting how nervous this town made him, and pulled out his phone, snapping a photo of Reno before the moment was lost… Which is was as soon as Reno heard the digital shutter sound that the phone made. He blushed a little, rolling his eyes, and turned towards the control room with a light huff, hiding his embarrassment at being caught awestruck with a rather meager showing of irritation. Rude smiled again, slipping the phone back into his pocket, and followed, his light mood lasting for the trip up the path. It disappeared as soon as they rounded the corner of the building and saw the entrance.

The door was ripped off its hinges and lay to the side, gouged with deep slashes and crumpled where it had landed. Freezing momentarily, Reno grabbed the handle of his EMR where it dangled from his wrist, soundlessly flicking on the switch. Rude was already wearing his gloves, but slipped his gun out of the holster under his jacket. Reno glanced over at him and he nodded briefly; they moved towards the entrance silently and burst inside one after another, quickly scanning the room for any creatures or bodies. It was, of course, empty. Reno sighed.

"Guess anything behind _that_ door knows we're here now." They were standing in a small entranceway, a small secretary's desk and chair the only objects in the room. A door immediately opposite the entrance was cracked open an inch, and the Turks moved towards it cautiously.

Rude went in first this time, kicking the door open with a loud slam in the hopes of startling anything in there that was now aware of their presence. He needn't have bothered; the control center that they found themselves in was as devoid of life as the rest of the town. It was, however, as damaged as the front door to the building.

Control panels were ripped from the walls, computer screens and desks smashed and destroyed. Reno flipped on the light switch, and the gouges that littered the walls and floor could now easily be identified as claw marks… From a rather large set of claws. Staring, Rude pulled out his phone again, this time sending a picture to Tseng. The phone rang moments later and Rude answered it, watching Reno walk around and inspect the damaged equipment.

"Sir."

"Rude. What happened? Is there anyone there? Any bodies?"

"No sir. There doesn't seem to be anyone in the town at all, actually. It was completely dead when we drove through."

"Is there any serviceable equipment there at all? There should be cameras installed in the room somewhere…"

Rude relayed the question to Reno, who barked out a short laugh before tossing an object over his shoulder in Rude's direction. The remains of a surveillance camera landed at his feet. "Everything's trashed, right down to the keyboards and stuff. I doubt anything can be fixed." He turned to face Rude.

Rude sighed, lowering his head and rubbing the bridge of his nose. He completely missed the way Reno suddenly tensed and paled, passing on Reno's response to Tseng, who sighed. "Very well. That area isn't known for having many dangerous monsters; it's possible that the earthquake the other week damaged the reactor and caused a leak."

"Uh, Rude?"

Rude held up a finger, indicating for Reno to be silent. He didn't look up, listening to the rest of Tseng's instructions. "Go inspect the reactor for a leak; there's Mako detection equipment with the rest of your gear. Keep a sharp eye out for anything else that's odd; an entire town doesn't just vanish without a trace."

"Rude…"

"Yes sir." He closed the phone, looking up in irritation. "_What_, Re…" The look on Reno's face as the redhead stared past him made him stop, and he turned around slowly, only now registering the quiet sound of ragged breathing coming from behind him. "Oh. Shit."

* * *

**A/N:** The solution to embarrassing scenes: pretend they never happened!

Remove spaces from the links that are mentioned below... Ok, so Claster is, obviously, not a real town in FFVII. I've uploaded a picture of the FFVII world map, with a mark where "Claster" would be: crystalwind. deviantart .com/art/FFVII-Claster-105444039 That said, I had to estimate "real life" distances on the map, and 20 hours away is just a bullshit timeframe that I made up. I also pretended for the sake of my story that the ridges on the map there are actually an extension of the mountains to the south. A photo showing my general idea of the way the reservoir looks:

crystalwind. deviantart .com/art/Claster-Reservoir-105444292 Had to upload it from the original site to dA, since FFNet doesn't display certain symbols.

While I'm on the topic of pictures, it occurs to me that I never linked to the picture of Reno when he arrived at the TTC. So, here it is: crystalwind. deviantart .com/art/The-Reaper-Pass-100063434

Sorry for the little cliffhanger there :p You can probably guess what's happened though… I guess it is a little bit of a cliché scene.

**REVIEWS!**

Before I get to individual reviews (which might actually wind up longer than the chapter itself…), I'd like to say a general thank you to all of you guys for reviewing so much. It means a lot to me, even when I can't respond right away. The well-wishes for the rest of my semester were also much appreciated (even though they sadly didn't help me with my oral seminar or my two exams in the one class…nor did studying…-sigh- beware graduate-level math courses :p).

**Bob da peach** – we may never know :p I'm actually a little irritated at myself for writing the slums into such a state, since it kind of hinders my intent to end this story soon and move on to a sequel that's set 6 years in the future… I might end the story anyway and do a shorter one involving the slums. Have to figure out what I'm going to do to have them fix the issue though :p

**Rulisu** – thank you :) I'm still not all -that- happy with ch.14, but I haven't really read through it all in one go either… not sure I want to, lol. This chapter at least came easily, even though it's a bit short

**Jennie300303** – cookie! Ah, yeah, forcedness… the reason I don't want to read through the chapter :p I really hate writer's block sometimes… glad you enjoyed it though :)

**Riku-rocks** – I feel a little cheap for pretty much completely _ignoring_ the last chapter's ending in this one… but I promise I won't leave it like that forever, they just need to survive this mission, hehe. Eventually I'll resolve the other hanging plot holes too… I hope

**D0rkgoddess** – Reno's by far my favorite FF7 character, but I've always wondered about Rude's story… he's such a socially awkward guy. I was originally going to talk about his past in a flashback chapter, but lately I've been thinking of devoting a short story to him instead… I think he deserves it for having to deal with Reno, lol. Thanks for the well-wishes, and the cookies (I need them both, lol). Crossing my fingers for a massive curve in my one class ;)

**Silenceisdead** – Glad you're enjoying it! And welcome :)

**Cutelittleearthbender** – This particular drug I think is going to disappear quietly from the plot… Reno's definitely going to become active in "influencing" events in the slums though, although it will probably be in a sequel instead of this story. Thanks for the well-wishes!

**Rabidyaoifanboy** – Rude's not an asshole, he's just… socially retarded? Lol, he needs some serious work on his people skills. Reno is awfully tenacious… Luckily for him I'm only going to put him through one more seriously angsty issue in this story, and then he'll get a happy ending :p (unluckily for him, he then has to endure the sequels…)

**Crissie ()** – welcome to the story!

**Abls** – lol, I keep searching for them myself! They're few and far between though, unfortunately… :( Hence part of the reason I decided I needed to make one myself – that way there's always a new story for me, even if it _is_ mostly in my head :p

**Envious invidia** – heh, it took me long enough ;) Is it bad if I almost make _myself_ cry with that ending?

**Etrixan** – well, I _did_ decide who I was going to make your character… then I changed my mind, then I forgot… now I'm sorry, but I think your character might quickly become dead (your cameo actually almost became the name of the reservoir… heh). Quick thing though, and I hate to actually have to ask, but… male or female? -blush- it doesn't affect the story either way, but I hate it when people mistake me for the wrong gender, so I figured I'd ask… (although if you'd rather not say, I can just pick one ;) ). I wish I gave Reno _more_ time with his old friends… my original concept of the story had them playing a much more central role in his life :-/ (of course, my original concept of the story also had him killing his dad, a ton of scenes involving his time at the TTC, and a non-existent grandfather, who I may or may not actually write into a sequel…). Aaanyway… Rude and Reno will eventually sort things out; they're going to have a lot of recovery time after this mission to talk ;) Thanks for the luck, hopefully it will help me have a miracle in this class :p

**Tala-fangirl** – thanks :) eventually his life will stop sucking so much, lol…

**Graydevilforever** – lol, hope you don't hold your breath too long… ignoring the problem isn't really a reaction I think. Thanks :)

**Trabeck** – finally managed to get something else done, lol. –throws schoolwork out the window-

**Purefoysgirl** – whoo! Don't apologize, I think I've done the same thing with your stories… can't recall if I've stopped by to review or not -sigh- (I guess that's probably a sign that I should, lol). Thanks a ton for the review! I think I've just officially decided to have the "slums solution" in a short-ish sequel, and that's really where we're going to see the Reaper "legend" and Reno's psycho side really come out. It's something I'm really starting to look forward to writing :)

**Belovedly loveless** – another addict ;) Hopefully I'll be able to update more now that this semester is winding down… only a few final exams, and only one of them that requires massive amounts of studying, so the semester has (finally) wound down. Now my only obstacle to frequent updates will be the possible lack of a solid internet connection the first couple weeks of winter break :(

**Phantomboo** – Thanks, and yes. Yes it does. The professor isn't the most pleasant person in the world, either… oral seminars were a complete _nightmare_. I've definitely decided to split the whole tale into pieces… The Reaper will probably only be a handful of chapters longer before I end it and move on to either a sequel or Rude's prequel story.

**Soto-uchiha** – heh, I sure hope I survive… although the hardest part was surviving this week I think, so actual finals week should be ok ;) thanks :)

**Silvermoon** – it's too late for me to wish you luck I guess, so hope you did all right! I personally got a 24 percent on the 3rd midterm, and probably bombed the make-up for the 1st test (which I only got a 2 percent on, so I suppose I can't have done any worse on the make-up…). Good luck on your finals too, I'm sure they're coming up soon as well.


	20. Ch 16 Claster, Pt 2

**Warnings:** Zombies. Kind of.

* * *

_Chapter Sixteen – Claster, Part Two_

* * *

…_he turned around slowly, only now registering the quiet sound of ragged breathing coming from behind him. "Oh. Shit."_

* * *

The creature standing in the doorway was only vaguely recognizable as having once been human. Two eyes, two arms, two legs… actually, the only thing that really made Rude sure that it had been human was because it was wearing the remains of clothing. Apart from that, it didn't really bear any resemblance to any human being that Rude had ever met, with the possible exception of Hojo; he got that same crazy look in his beady little eyes when he was obsessing over his latest experiment.

Now was probably a really bad time to be thinking about Hojo's eyes… Blinking to clear his head, Rude continued to stare at the creature, not daring to move lest it decide to reach out and claw his face off. He only hoped that Reno would be as cautious…

Something shifted in the rubble behind him, the creature jerked towards the noise, and the remains of a laptop flew past Rude's head and into the monster's face in a shower of sparks. Reno flew by a moment later, grabbing Rude's arm and zapping the beast with his EMR on the way by. It only took Rude a moment to realize what Reno's plan was, and a moment longer to decide that he agreed with it and to put all his effort into reaching the car before the monster reached _them_. They might even have made it had the thing not brought along a friend…

"What the _fuck_, there's another one!" Reno stopped and turned, crashing into Rude on his way up a jumble of boulders alongside the path. Rude sighed, hearing Thing 1 crash down the path behind them and watching Thing 2 begin to mutilate the SUV. He highly doubted that climbing on top of a rock would deter the creatures.

"Actually, Reno, there's probably a whole town full of them; the first one was wearing a comm. center uniform I think. Anyone who isn't a mutant was probably lunch." Reno stopped scrambling up the rocks to turn and look at Rude, realizing that the bald man was serious, and wasn't bothering to climb up behind him. Below them, Thing 2 remained happily oblivious to the pair, chewing on one of the car's front tires; Thing 1 would soon round the bend in the path and be on them.

Reno sighed, hopping back down to stand next to Rude. "Being lunch really wasn't on my list of things to do today." Rude smirked, withdrawing his gun from its holster beneath his jacket. Reno rolled his neck, hefting his EMR to rest on his shoulder. His thumb rested lightly on the switch, prepared to crank it up to full power. "Let's fry this thing."

* * *

Rude decided that "Let's fry this thing" probably fell somewhere along the ranks of "No problem" or "Hey, watch this!" In short, he never wanted to hear that phrase come out of Reno's mouth ever again. Thing 1 hadn't rushed headlong into Rude's bullets or Reno's bolts of electricity; it had rounded the bend, stopped, and _screamed_. Thing 2 promptly spit out its entrée of tire and dashed up the trail towards them (and it was _fast_), and Thing 3… apparently had been napping behind the boulders that Reno had previously been climbing up, and popped up right above them, snarling and slobbering. One vaguely humanoid monster with serrated teeth and claws the size of steak knives was bearable; disgusting, rank, and painfully _loud_, but bearable. Two were okay, so long as one was a little ways away from the other. Three was nearly too much, and Thing 3 damned near gave Rude a heart attack when it suddenly appeared above them.

Fortunately, Reno had long ago trained himself to equate "surprise" with "oh shit kill it", and snapped around in time to send a high-powered Bolt3, boosted by the EMR's power, straight into Thing 3's drooling mouth. It toppled back over the boulder from whence it came, and didn't resurface. Things 1 and 2 weren't as easy to dispatch.

A bullet to the throat stopped Thing 1's screeching, but regrettably pissed it off at the same time that Thing 2 arrived on the scene. That left two hideously deformed monsters attacking the pair of Turks at the same time, and they were unfortunately much faster than the Turks.

There weren't many people in the world capable of body slamming Rude into anything, and he was colleagues with most of them, and had so avoided the unpleasant experience for most of his life. Now, however, he lost count of how many times he was thrown into the rocks that were slowly becoming covered in blood. Reno, smaller and slightly faster and more agile than Rude, was able to wriggle his way out of being forcibly hurled into anything, but he wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the slashing claws that shredded clothing and skin alike with equal abandon. Needless to say, it was an unpleasant experience for both of them.

Thankfully, when Rude's gun was knocked out of his grasp it landed far enough to the side that it wasn't trampled and crushed. Several painful body slams later and Rude found himself lying next to the weapon; two quick shots later and he finished the job on Thing 1 that he'd started, watching its head disappear in a spray of red mist. He turned in time to watch Reno alternately stabbing Thing 2 with his blade and bludgeoning it to death with his EMR, which emitted golden sparks every time it came into contact with the creature's body. It took Rude a minute to realize that the monster was already dead; he stepped in quickly and wrestled Reno off of the thing's inert body.

Reno swung around, wide-eyed, and for one heart-stopping moment Rude was certain that he was about to be blasted by the EMR. He tensed, waiting for the surge, but Reno calmed, recognizing him, and turned back to Thing 2. He stared for a moment, taking in the gaping wounds and crushed head. "Oh." That was all he said, in a voice small enough that Rude wasn't sure he heard it at first. Reno wiped his knife and EMR off on his trousers before sheathing the blade and allowing the EMR to dangle from the strap around his wrist. He turned to face Rude, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Rude frowned, unable to tell if Reno was embarrassed or afraid. "Now what?"

'_Embarrassed_', Rude decided. "Tseng wanted us to check out the reactor for leaks."

"'Kay." Reno turned down the path, spotted the remains of the vehicle, and turned back to Rude. "Guess we're walking?" Rude sighed.

* * *

Reno wiped at the blood congealing in his hair in irritation. Why the hell had he ever wanted to go on a "real" mission anyway? His wounds were healed, courtesy of a Cure materia, but his clothes were practically destroyed, and it was tough to wipe blood off of your face with a blood-soaked sleeve. The reactor, like the satellite site, was located on the edge of the reservoir, but there were nearly three miles of town between the reactor and the site. The two were carrying what seemed like a half ton of equipment from the back of the destroyed SUV, and it seemed like every few minutes they were running into another mutant… or five.

'_So much for this being a ghost town... At least the mutants we're running into now aren't nearly as fast or as big as those first three._' Reno sighed, giving up on getting the blood out of his hair and hefting his bags again. Rude glanced over at him when he heard the sigh, concerned. Both of them had needed to be Cured after that first fight, but Reno had lost a lot of blood and was looking paler than normal. His reaction times didn't seem to be hurt by the blood loss, but Rude worried that the continuous battles were starting to take their toll. The two were leaving behind a trail of 47 bodies, and counting. It was Rude's turn to sigh now, and he turned back towards the reactor, hoping that there was a secure room there that they could rest in. What should have been an hour-long walk was already three hours long, and dusk fell early in the mountains. He didn't want to know what kind of mutants would appear under the cover of darkness.

* * *

**A/N:**

Sorry about an even shorter chapter, but I'm flying north for the holidays tomorrow morning, and need to (re)pack my stuff, and get ready for dinner tonight, so this is where I stop for now. The places I'm staying at the next two weeks have some pretty iffy internet connection (one has dial-up, one has no internet except little bits of the neighbor's wireless, and the other has a single Ethernet-connected computer that I have to fight the entire family for time to use), so while I can probably find time to _type_ in the next couple of weeks, I won't be able to update again until after Christmas (unless I manage to pack in a decent time tonight and have a writing spree :p). Aaand I find out my final grades tomorrow... everyone cross your fingers for me passing my Intro Analysis class -sigh-

Anyway, not a whole lot that happened this chapter, except Reno going a little psycho on some mutant…

Oh, and the confusion about chapter 19 and 20: Chapter 19 was my post about "blah blah exams no posts for a while and here's what's going to happen soon". Chapter 20 was the first Claster section. Once I uploaded Claster, I deleted the "Ch 19" author's note, which turned Claster from ch 20 into ch 19. Sorry for the confusion :p but here's a real Ch 20 lol.

**Reviews:**

**Etrix – **Your "character" is coming up in the next section ;) And yeah, typical guys, lol. My little brother does the same thing on long car rides -_- (ah, well, I'm sure I did too, lol)

**Riku-Rocks – **Rude's paying attention _now_, hehe. Someday, I'll draw the reservoir scene. Someday…

**Rulisu** – Glad you like it ;) Don't worry about the ch 20 thing, hehe. I think I actually confused _myself_ there, lol.

**Envious Invidia – **something crept up on Rude while he wasn't paying attention to Reno, lol

**Jennie300303 – **indeed :p Rude has learned his lesson now I think…

**Sketchy-dreams** – Reno is pretty much awesome anywhere ;) Thanks though :) And Rude… excitement over Rude or saying that Reno is rude? (which let's be honest, he often is…) I actually would love to see more Rude-centric stories; there's plenty of RudexTifa stories out there, but I haven't found too many where I really like Rude's character. I always figured he'd have such an interesting back story… Ah well, eventually I'll finish this and start spamming ffnet with my own "why Rude is the way he is story" :p


	21. Ch 17 Claster, Pt 3

**Warnings: **Some language

* * *

_Chapter Seventeen – Claster, Part Three_

* * *

"_The reactor is situated right on the edge of the reservoir. Rude's last call from the Communication Center makes me suspect that the town is overrun; they might not even have made it to the reactor by the time you and your troops arrive… They have three miles to walk and they're both recovering from injuries."_

"_I'll have the transports follow the road around the reservoir once we get into the valley. If they're not at the reactor yet, we'll pick them up on the way and clear the way in for them to finish their job."_

"_Excellent. Everything is in order for you to leave then. And… Sephiroth? I'd really like to get my best Turks back alive."_

"_Of course. That redhead is far too amusing for me to simply allow him to return to the Lifestream; whoever would entertain me?"_

"_I'm sure Rhapsodos and Fair would manage. Safe flight."_

"_We'll bring them back to you. Don't worry."_

"_I'm counting on it."_

* * *

It was difficult at first to focus on the reactor – blood loss, exhaustion, and a three mile walk full of mutant freaks didn't lend well towards properly-functioning eyesight – but once he did, Reno found himself unable to look away. "Half of it… fell over." Rude was equally transfixed, and didn't respond.

Reno's assessment of the reactor's state wasn't very exaggerated; the earthquake had caused significant pieces of the reactor to crack and fall apart. Pipes and sections of stairs and catwalks had fallen to the ground, and the Shin-Ra sign on the front of the reactor was split in two. It was fairly apparent that a reactor leak had indeed caused the mutations in the town. Rude sighed.

"We'd better go in and see what the damage is before reporting to Tseng; he'll want to know." Reno dragged his eyes away from the reactor to the path leading up to it and groaned.

"Had to be uphill, huh?" He muttered to himself incomprehensibly for a little bit before raising his voice loud enough for Rude to hear again. "_And_ a chain-link fence on the reservoir side… won't even get a nice view while we're suffering up that stupid thing…"

Rude moved forward, waving for Reno to follow. "The sooner we can get up the path, the sooner we can get the job done and rest. Even with the damage there should be a secure room of some kind in there; we can wait there for a transport to come get us." It was Reno's turn to sigh now, but he followed obediently. Rest at the top sounded good.

They were two-thirds of the way up when a flaw in their plan to reach the top made itself apparent. A loud screech and a large blur were all Reno had time to take in before the mutant that had been hidden off the side of the path crashed into him, its momentum carrying them both off the path… through the chain link fence… and into the freezing-cold reservoir.

Reno had the presence of mind to take a breath before he hit the water, but the shock of the cold almost made him lose it.

* * *

_Her hands reached for him wrapping tightly around his neck. He couldn't breathe; he couldn't move. Before he could even think to try and pry her fingers away, he was shoved under the water. The red-tinted liquid exploded into sparks and black spots when his head struck the ceramic; he would have lost his breath if her hands hadn't been wrapped so tightly around his throat still. His vision faded, along with the pain. He was going to die…_

* * *

A stabbing pain in Reno's ankle brought him sharply back to reality and he thrashed, briefly panicking and nearly letting out his breath again before he realized what was going on. The twisted remains of the chain link fence were tangled and wrapped around him, and they were slowly dragging him down. His ankle… He looked down and discovered that his ankle was _not_ pierced by a piece of fence; it was pierced by the sharp teeth of the mutant, who apparently didn't need oxygen _nearly _as much as Reno did.

Reno's first instinct was to grab for his gun, before he remembered that he'd lost it to the jaws of yet another mutant about a mile back. Giving a mental curse and trying to kick at the thing's head with his free foot, he reached for his knife next. After struggling for a moment to try and reach down to the mutant with the blade, he concluded that the gnarled fence wasn't going to allow him that much movement. If he wasn't desperately trying to hold his breath and keep from passing out, he would have sighed at this point. He only had one weapon left.

Reno generally tried to avoid electrocuting himself, although he _did_ enjoy the sharp snap and light tingle when he set the EMR to its lowest setting and tapped his tongue with it (plus it was great for irritating Tseng). He had, however, had Rude zap him with it once just so he would know how powerful it was and (hopefully) respect it a bit more; he had never let Rude do that again.

The blast that he experienced now was nothing like that one time; magnified by the conductivity of the water around him, it was about a hundred times worse. He didn't need to try and hold his breath any longer; his muscles had seized so tight that his lungs were no longer functioning. His body was strained and twisted, paralyzed by the shock, and he stared blankly as the chain-link fence continued to drag him down to his death; he didn't even register the fact that the mutant had let go.

* * *

Reno's entire plight – from initial panic to electrocuting himself – only lasted moments, even if it seemed like a lifetime to him. It was just long enough for Rude to kick off his shoes, toss his shades to the ground, watch the water light up, and dive in. No mutant freak was going to drown his partner.

He saw the mutant before he saw Reno, its now-lifeless form slowly sinking away. It only took a second for the twisted mass of fence to draw his attention though, and he kicked as hard as he could towards the shock of red that he saw entangled in it. Reno wasn't moving. His muscles had relaxed almost as quickly as they had seized up, and he hadn't been cognitive enough to prevent the exhalation and subsequent intake of breath. He hadn't had the strength or will to even be concerned about it; some monster in a pretty little vacation town was going to finish the job that his mother had started years ago, and that was that. He was unconscious and no longer breathing by the time Rude reached him.

Reno was too close to dead to panic about his own condition, but Rude more than made up for it. He struggled with the remains of the fence, pulling at it and twisting at it. He grabbed Reno's knife from its sheath and sawed at the crumpled and weakened metal, cutting through clothing and skin when he had to, just to get Reno free.

They surfaced in a rush of water and bubbles and blood when Rude finally succeeded, dragging his unconscious partner through the water until he could lay him out on the rocky shore, pounding on his chest and breathing life back into his abused and waterlogged lungs. It was less than a minute, but it seemed like an eternity before Reno coughed and vomited up the water in his lungs and stomach, choking and dry heaving until he could take in a ragged gasp of air. He stared up at Rude, dazed and wondering why Rude was wet and wasn't wearing sunglasses and '_I never knew his eyes looked like that,_' and then he was cloaked in the green haze of a Cure materia and couldn't really see much of anything.

Once the haze faded away, they both just stared at each other for a moment, too confused and exhausted and crashing down from the adrenaline high to think coherently, let alone get up and move. As it was, it took a high-pitched shriek from the bottom of the path to get them up and moving. The town's denizens had heard their compatriot scream as it hurtled into the water, and they apparently weren't very happy about it. Eleven of them stood at the base of the path, screeching at the tops of their lungs.

Rude backed up slowly towards his shoes, praying that they wouldn't stop screaming and attack before he was fully prepared to run. Reno backed up with him, stumbling slightly and still breathing raggedly from his trip into the water. It was amazing what a sudden spike in terror could do to your adrenaline levels. He chanced a glance at the reactor while Rude quietly slipped on his shoes, wondering if they'd be able to make it there and shut the door before the mutants were on them. It only took a split second for him to decide that that wasn't going to happen, and he tugged wordlessly on Rude's sleeve. Rude finished putting his shoes on and picked up his glasses, looking warily to see what Reno wanted. When he saw what Reno was pointing at, he stood the rest of the way up and put on his glasses, straightening his tie and the hem of his jacket with a few sharp jerks. There may have been eleven mutants at the bottom of the path, but there were twenty or so at the top, and they were a lot closer.

As though Rude's attempt at straightening his clothing was a challenge, the mutants at the bottom screamed even louder and attacked. The mutants at the top hadn't screamed to begin with, and simply attacked without a sound. The screams and sounds of battle drowned out the heavy drone of engines in the background.

* * *

"This is Garuda One. Crossing over the boundary of the target town now. Garuda Flight moving towards reactor."

Sephiroth was only half-listening to the pilot speak on the radio, more focused on the ground below. He wasn't much of one for taking time to look at scenery, but the view of the mountains from the air was incredible, and had made the last part of the flight much more enjoyable. Now, however, they were in the airspace directly over the town, flying high enough to see a good portion of Claster, but low enough for the Soldiers' enhanced eyes to pick out details along the road that the flight of four transports followed. Low enough to see the bodies that the isolated Turks had left in their wake. Sephiroth frowned. Their transport wasn't moving nearly fast enough towards the Turks to suit him; he peered forward to try and spot the reactor, wondering if the Turks had managed to make it there.

A dark mass in front of the reactor told him his answer as soon as the transport was close enough to it for him to see. The two Turks were there… along with nearly a hundred mutants, all bent on eating the humans in their midst.

Sephiroth scowled, tapped the pilot on the shoulder, and ordered him to drop them right in the middle of the melee. Then he crawled into the back of the transport, flexing his fingers and preparing to swing Masamune as soon as there was a mutant neck within reach. Three pairs of eyes watched him. Genesis smirked when he saw the General flex his fingers, anticipating a good fight; Angeal's smile wasn't as enthusiastic, but equally prepared to wreak havoc. Zack grinned and bounced in his seat, thrilled at finally being able to get off the transport and kick some ass. Only one person in the transport didn't seem at all happy or excited; a small blond Third Class stared at the floor of the transport, looking rather ill. Sephiroth spotted him and gave a smirk to match Genesis'; the boy had gotten airsick as soon as the transport lifted off the ground. He wasn't very thrilled right now, but Sephiroth suspected that he'd be the happiest one of them when his boots were finally on the ground. '_Until he realizes that he has to get back on the ship to get back home._' The General's smirk was almost sadistic by the time the pilot announced that the doors were opening. As predicted, the blonde looked up instantly, his face immediately brighter. Sephiroth laughed, turning towards the door as the wind gusted into the transport. A few more feet, and they would be low enough to jump out. His grin turned feral, and he moved towards the door.

* * *

Rude and Reno flopped to the ground, exhausted beyond their ability to stand. The four transports full of Soldiers, led from the front by Sephiroth, had quickly dispatched the massed mutants, leaving the Turks to catch their breath and try to Cure themselves. Having done so, they no longer had the energy to do anything besides wait for someone to put them on a transport home. Someone else could go into that damned reactor; they had lost have of the equipment needed for testing the mako levels anyway when Reno was thrown into the reservoir.

Remembering his partner's recent dunking, Rude scooted over to him and dragged him close, wrapping an arm around Reno's shoulders to try and keep him from shivering. Now that they weren't moving and keeping warm, Reno's lips were turning blue, along with his fingertips, and he was grateful for the added warmth. They sat that way, leaning against each other and huddled together, until Sephiroth and Angeal picked them up and put them on a transport.

* * *

Rude's injuries only needed a day of sleep and a few bags of blood to get him back on his feet; he spent the next three days sitting by Reno's hospital bed as the redhead battled hypothermia, an infection in his ankle, and severe dehydration. Tseng sent a new team of Turks, escorted by a large complement of Soldiers, to shut down the damaged reactor. He didn't bother asking Rude to write a report; the extent of Reno's injuries told most of the story, and he suspected that Rude would wind up writing the report anyway… once Reno was well enough to be out of the hospital.

It was sitting on his desk when he arrived at work four days later.

* * *

"Your birthday is in two weeks."

"How the hell did you find out about that? And why are you bringing it up?" Reno glared at Rude suspiciously. "I'm not celebrating it. Ever. Until I'm fifty, and can have an Over the Hill party." Rude stared at him silently for a moment before replying.

"We're going on vacation for a month."

"What's a vacation?"

"No work."

"Oh. That sounds cool." Reno paused. "That actually sounds really boring. Who the hell wants to go on a vacation?"

Rude rolled his eyes. "Normal people. We're going, Tseng is making us anyway. He thinks we need some R&R after Claster."

"So… we're going to sit on our asses here in Midgar for four weeks, not doing anything… because the boss says so?"

Rude smirked slightly. "I think you missed the part where I said we're _going_ on a vacation. As in going. Leaving Midgar, and visiting somewhere else."

"Forgive me for not being excited, but the only time I've ever been out of the city, a town full of mutants tried to eat me." Rude only continued smirking, and Reno sighed, deciding he might as well bite the bullet and ask. "Where are we going?"

Rude's smile grew into a broad grin. "We're going to Costa del Sol, to see my mother."

* * *

**A/N:** I hate trying to write battle scenes, so I try to avoid them by just writing about the aftermath. In case you couldn't tell :p

Poor Cloud has been marginalized, and will only be noted for his motion sickness :( At least he (finally :p) appeared though! And he'll show up more in the one-shots I think.

This part of Reno's tale is nearly finished; _The Reaper_ will end with their visit to Costa (although it will take a few parts before it's through). Then I'll move on to the next part of the story (either the prequel about Rude, or the semi-sequel about Reno's brother and when they meet up again). That also leaves me open to do some short pieces about Reno's time as a Trainee, or about some of his entertaining times with Rude. (I'm also tossing around another Reno-centric story idea about shapeshifters… might actually start work on that while I'm finishing _The Reaper_ up)

Anyway, finally finished the Claster nonsense :p Hope you guys enjoyed it… got some more cuddling in at the end too lol.

**Reviews:**

**Envious Invidia** – Evil. And hungry. But mostly evil :p That's all they are XD

**Rulisu** – lol, thanks :) I actually really don't like actually typing battle scenes, because they're such a pain to do. I've found that if I'm going to actually write one (instead of just skipping around it like I did in this chapter), it helps to just catch snippets of the battle – flashes of what is happening to someone in one instant, and switching right over to someone else. It leaves a lot of "empty space" for the reader to fill in and envision what they think is going on, and helps keep the battle scene from sounding too forced, lengthy, boring, or all three :p

**RabidYaoiFanboy **– lol, indeed. I hope I never ever hear anybody quote that line :p My holidays were pretty good, and the relatives are definitely crazy ;) Guess that's why we love them though, hehe. Hope your holidays went well also :)

**D0rkgoddess** – thanks :) The next section when they're visiting Rude's mom is the part that will really develop them as a pair I think (and will be the last bit of angst Reno has to suffer through in this story :p)

**Riku-rocks** – glad you enjoyed it :) I suspect that in a moment of panic, Reno's reactions are probably similar to what I might be thinking in that situation :p Rude is… such a teddy bear :p lol, I just always picture as this big intimidating guy who's really such a softy on the inside :p

**JuubiOokami** – sometimes I forget myself that Reno is still just 16 at this point in the story; I made him grow up so fast that I have to remind myself that he's not -really- an adult yet, just unfortunately very mature for his age… most of the time :)

**Etrixan** – I think in the sequel about Reno and his brother I'm going to have to come up with a similar line :p I think Rude probably has a ten-page list of them lol

**Kasturi** – thanks :) The holidays were pretty good for me (although I've discovered that there's only so long I can relax before I seriously need to get out and do something :p) Hope yours went well too :)

**Purplepenguin25** – ahhh, thanks :) Sometime I catch them when I reread as I type the next chapter, but more often than not I probably miss them :p Yanno, not really sure if they count as dead or not… I love your name, btw XD


	22. Ch 18 Vacation

**Warnings: **Lemon, a shitload of awkwardness, and way too much nautical terminology -_-

* * *

_Chapter Eighteen – Vacation_

* * *

When Rude called Mama to tell her that he was coming home for a vacation, she was thrilled. When he added that he was bringing his new partner with him, she was noticeably less excited, although she did well trying to hide the fact. It was understandable, really – he hadn't exactly had the best luck in partners, after all – so he ignored her reaction for the most part, beyond a small admonishment to "be nice, because the kid was new."

After that call, he booked the trip over. It was a three-day, two-night trip by boat, and he almost booked a shorter trip by air, until he remembered the look on Reno's face when he first looked out over the Claster Reservoir. Remembering that Reno hadn't ever left Midgar before the Claster trip, and so would never have seen the ocean, Rude booked the sea voyage, hoping that Reno wasn't the sort who got seasick. He stopped by the convenience store that evening and bought some Dramamine just in case.

The ship, as frequently occurred during the spring and summer, was booked solid for over a month, with only one open cabin during the next trip. The cabin was a large stateroom with a king-sized bed and an attached washroom, so Rude took it. He even managed to convince himself that he wasn't excited about sharing a bed with Reno for a few days.

* * *

Hauling two bags each and armed with a thick stack of seasickness bags (a parting gift from Genesis once he found out that they were leaving for a month), the two Turks strode up the gangplank, Reno still limping from his ankle injury and moving slowly accordingly. Rude waited for him at the top, snatching the heavier of his two bags away before Reno had time to protest and leading him below decks to drop the bags off in their room. Reno whistled when he saw it, plopping down on the bed and looking around. "I didn't know they had rooms this big on a boat."

Rude smiled quietly, letting him gaze around for a little bit before speaking. "They'll be casting off soon; do you want to watch?" Reno grinned, hopping to his feet as fast as his ankle would allow and following Rude back to the upper deck.

Setting sail wasn't really as exciting as Reno had expected. The ship blew its horn three times, the crew undid the lines and threw them onto the dock (which was actually kind of neat, since the lines were four inches in diameter and were probably pretty hard to actually throw anywhere), and a small tug maneuvered the ship away from the dock. The breeze and the turning of the ship washed the deck in diesel fumes, which Reno found somewhat ironic, given that everything else owned and operated by Shin-Ra tended to operate on Mako energy. He stayed despite the fumes, however, watching Junon grow smaller behind them. He had never been to the port city before, but as far as he was concerned, it was an extension of Midgar, and he was now leaving his home behind.

"We'll see it again in a month." Rude's voice was quiet, but Reno startled anyway, forgetting in his nostalgia that his partner was standing right behind him. He blinked rapidly, hoping that Rude would think it was the diesel smoke making his eyes water, and coughed a little before nodding. Rude looked away politely while Reno collected himself; he himself had used his sunglasses to hide his homesickness when he first left Costa to join the Turks. He waited a few moments before speaking again. "Are you hungry?"

Reno shook his head, sighing. "Kind of tired, actually." He was frustrated; it seemed like all he'd been doing since Claster was sleep, but he was always tired anyway. Rude nodded.

"You'll probably get over that by the time we make port in Costa. Your ankle still won't be fully healed, but your body won't be spending so much energy fixing it by then. It was a long drive to Junon too," he added. "I could use a few hours' rest after the trip too. Lunch after we sleep for a little while?" Reno nodded, grateful that Rude wasn't making a big deal about it, and followed his partner back down to the cabin.

* * *

Reno stretched, sighing when his back popped and wincing when his ankle did the same thing only louder. Deciding that the wet-sounding crack was a good sign to stay in bed, he rolled over, expecting to find himself cuddled up against Rude's back. He found himself curled up to Rude's chest instead, and froze. '_Wasn't he facing the other way when we went to sleep?_'

* * *

Rude drowsed for a while before rolling over to try and get more comfortable, and quickly found himself mesmerized by the light from the porthole playing over Reno's back. He had never really considered Reno in a romantic sort of light – the redhead was really just too damned _loud_, to be honest – but he'd slowly noticed a gradual shift in his attentions over the past month. The incident in the Slums had reminded him that Reno was human, and the Claster mission… Well, he really didn't want to think about Claster, but it had felt nice curling up together while they waited on the Soldiers to finish cleaning house, and he couldn't have made himself leave Reno's hospital bed if his life depended on it. And Reno really did have a nice-looking back…

When Reno shifted and started stretching, Rude stared at the way the muscles played under the skin, too enthralled to flinch when the ankle cracked, too absorbed to consider that Reno might not appreciate catching him staring. By the time he realized that Reno was rolling over it was far too late to do anything about it, and he froze when he found himself curled up with his partner, the redhead's head tucked neatly under his chin.

* * *

It didn't take Reno long to decide that he'd been holding his breath for far too long to pretend to be asleep, so he let it out slowly, eyes flicking back and forth over the brief expanse of chest in front of his nose. This was probably the most awkward moment he'd ever been caught in in his entire life… Probably even worse than when Elena had walked in on him while he was using the Training Center's copying machine in a somewhat inappropriate manner as part of a prank. Although come to think of it, he'd been too afraid to move _then_ too… He continued staring at Rude's chest, too nervous to chance a glance up at his partner's face.

Rude let out the breath he'd been holding once he heard Reno start to breathe again, and slowly started to panic inside of his own mind. He hadn't been this uncomfortable since… ever. Even Mama's masterful attempts at embarrassing her children didn't quite compare to this one. Rule Number One of having a partner was that you _definitely_ shouldn't get caught checking them out, and he was pretty sure he'd broken, spat on, and pissed all _over_ that rule. He was too scared of seeing his partner's reaction to look down at Reno's face.

They lay there for several long moments, Rude staring at the door to the head and Reno trying to _not_ stare at Rude's nipples, before either of them dared to move or make a sound. As soon as Reno _did_ say something, he wished the bed would just open up and swallow him whole. "You smell good." Rude was pretty sure he would have gotten up and run away at that point, if his chest wasn't close enough to Reno's face to feel the heat emanating from his sudden blush. He chanced a glance down, and decided that if Reno looked like he wanted to die like that, he probably wasn't making fun of him. Probably.

Reno felt Rude shift to look down at him, felt his eyes on him, and wondered if it was too late to get up and run (or hobble) away. Only a week ago he'd watched Rude crush a mutant's head with his bare hands, and he was pretty sure that he'd just broken Rule Number One of partnership by actually _hitting on_ the older Turk, which may as well have signed his death warrant. And he _knew_ that he couldn't hobble faster than Rude could run; they were going to have to spend _months_ scraping his brains off of the ceiling after Rude was through with him.

Numb with panic over what Rude was going to do to him, Reno didn't notice his partner shifting again until a hand was gripping his chin, forcing him to tilt his head up. Reno had just enough time to wonder if Rude's eyes always looked cool like that, or if it was just when he was about to die, before Rude bent down and kissed him, and he stopped thinking about anything at all.

When Reno went completely limp, Rude was afraid that he'd scared his partner into fainting, and broke the kiss off immediately. _That_ roused Reno out of the daze that he'd fallen into, and he scowled at his partner. "What the fuck did you stop for?!?" Confused, but happy that Reno wasn't either passed out or ready to stab him, Rude complied. It was several hours before they left their cabin to find food.

* * *

After lunch, which Reno was surprised to discover actually tasted decent, he decided to explore the ship, dragging Rude along with him. Predictably, there wasn't a whole lot to see. Most of the ship was taken up by cabins, which neither Turk wanted to explore even if they _were_ allowed to do so. The engine rooms and bridge were unavailable to regular passengers, although the Captain offered to let them take a tour the next day if they wanted to. Otherwise, there was nothing else to see besides the galley, which they had both just been in for lunch.

Bored with the "tour" but not yet ready to return to the cabin, Reno wandered out onto the deck. Ocean, sky… there wasn't a whole lot to see, honestly, so he wandered over to a large empty space on the deck, Rude trailing him quietly. Reno sat down on the edge of the raised platform, wondering if it was ever used as a stage before deciding that it didn't particularly matter. It was kind of nice to just sit and relax, watching the clouds and letting the breeze ruffle his hair. "Maybe there's something to this whole vacation thing after all…" Rude smiled a little, sitting next to him.

"How's your ankle feeling?" Reno shrugged. It was actually starting to throb, but he didn't really feel like telling Rude that. He suspected that Rude knew anyway; he usually picked up on that sort of thing quickly, sometimes before even Reno had registered it. Rude didn't push the issue, knowing that Reno would probably sit in the sun for a while before moving anyway. The pair sat there for hours, soaking in the sun.

* * *

"Well… Guess we'd better take a shower." That was all Reno had to say for the morning's awkwardness to return full-force; apparently kissing and cuddling for a couple of hours didn't really solve that problem like they'd thought it had. Cue the shifty eyes, avoiding gazes, and shuffling feet. What exactly _was_ the protocol for behavior when you wanted to sleep with your work partner, anyway? Rude coughed nervously, wishing he was wearing a uniform so that he could straighten his tie, and Reno wondered if it was actually possible to die from a suffocating atmosphere of discomfort. He didn't particularly want to find out.

"_So_, since we need to shower… and I'm injured… I should get it first." He looked at Rude quickly before glancing away again. "_Aaand_… since I'm injured, and am _clearly_ handicapped by a limited mobility… I need someone to help wash my back." Glance up, glance away. Glance back up again. Away. Up. Yeah, Rude was definitely doing the same thing. Smirking ('_Poor guy is totally trapped by some seriously ancient dating etiquette or something…_') Reno stopped trying to avoid getting caught staring, and looked at his partner until the older Turk noticed and looked back. "_SO_, since I _clearly_ need help, you should _clearly_ come join me. Once you've stopped blushing. Which you definitely _are_, I don't care if your skin is dark, I can _tell_ Rude." Trying not to laugh at the mortified look on Rude's face, Reno turned and hobbled into the head. It didn't even occur to him that Rude might not follow… which he did, after several moments of wondering how Reno could tell he was blushing without being able to see it. He had to admit though, Reno's "lack of mobility" was a pretty lame excuse… even though it had worked.

**(…and here starts the lemon, in case you don't particularly feel like reading it. It actually goes until the end of the chapter, so you can skip to the A/N of you want…)**

By the time Rude gave up on figuring out the mystery of his blushes and walked into the head, Reno was already standing under a spray of hot water, hidden by a rapidly-fogging shower door. And he was singing. Rude stopped where he was, reflecting with some amusement that Reno was probably one of the few people in the world who could sing a song about cats swimming while he was taking a shower and still actually sound good. Then Reno stopped in the middle of a line to ask him why he was just standing there instead of getting in, and he huffed out a small laugh; the redhead always knew when he was there. Glad that Reno wasn't going to leave any time for things to grow awkward again, he stripped down quickly and cracked open the shower door, stepping in and shutting the door to try and keep the cold air from entering the shower stall. Reno's back was to him, and he decided that while he liked watching the light play across Reno's back, it looked pretty good wet, too.

A quick shampoo-bottle-interception later and Reno was getting what he decided was pretty much the most awesome hair wash ever. It was really more of a head massage than anything else, and Reno sighed contentedly. He should have gotten Rude to wash his hair for him a _long_ time ago. He relaxed entirely, head drooping forward and weight resting on his uninjured leg while Rude rinsed out the shampoo and followed it up with conditioner. '_Who knew that a guy with no hair would be so good at this?_' Another bottle interception (although Reno didn't really fight for this one), and Rude was lathering body wash onto his back, kneading his neck and shoulder muscles. Reno couldn't restrain the moan that _that_ brought out, and he pushed back against Rude's hands, wordlessly (although not really soundlessly) asking for him to continue. Rude swallowed, trying to ignore the tightening in his groin that the noise had evoked, and obliged.

Reno's sighs and breathy groans as he continued made it difficult for Rude to keep his hands on Reno's shoulders, and after a minute of containing himself he decided that if Reno cared, he wouldn't have let Rude get into the shower with him, and he let his hands roam, working slowly down the planes of Reno's back. From his back it was only a quick trip to slide the palms of his hands down taut hips, his thumbs pressing across the firm muscles of Reno's rear before his hands changed direction and wrapped around to glide up the ridged muscles of his stomach and chest.

By this point Reno's sighs had turned to small gasps, and the moan he released when Rude's fingers found and rubbed around his nipples was entirely different from the one he'd issued when Rude began to massage his neck. That was all it took for Rude to drop a hand back to Reno's waist, turning him until they faced each other. Kissing while you were fully clothed in bed was a lot different than kissing while you were naked and pressed together in a hot shower, and neither Turk was really complaining about the fact.

Rude's arms were wrapped around Reno, holding most of his weight and preventing him from over-stressing his ankle, and Reno took full advantage of the opportunity to writhe against him, grinding their hips together while their tongues battled it out, twisting and teasing each other in a fierce battle, which Reno didn't really mind losing when Rude pressed the attack. The grinding had turned the dull ache in his groin into an intense throbbing and he panted and groaned into Rude's mouth, want and need combining to incite him into a desperate frenzy. He nearly sobbed when Rude broke off the kiss, lowering him back to the ground and holding his hips still to put a little bit of distance between their bodies.

Reno's eyes flew open, desperately seeking Rude's, and he opened his mouth to try and find out how he'd _already_ managed to fuck this up, but then his eyes found Rude's, and the serious look on his partner's face made the words die in his throat. Rude gazed at him for a moment, thumbs slowly stroking circles on his hips, before he leaned back in. Reno let his eyes fall closed again, but Rude's lips landed only on the corner of his mouth, then his jaw, and slowly began to travel down, and Reno opened his eyes again to watch him. Rude didn't linger on his nipples as he passed them, gracing them with a breathy, open-mouthed kiss before continuing on, passing his tense stomach and belly button and stopping to rest against the base of his erection. He paused there, breathing gently against it, thumbs still stroking Reno's hips, before leaning back, gazing up to watch Reno's reaction, and enveloping the flushed tip with the hot moisture of his mouth.

Overwhelmed by the heat and the pressure against his cock, Reno let his eyes flutter closed again and he leaned back to rest against the shower wall. Satisfied with his partner's reaction, Rude focused back on the task at hand, dipping his head down and sucking Reno's heavy erection tightly into his mouth. He swallowed a little more each time the tip of Reno's cock hit the back of his throat, and let his teeth scrape each time on the way back up, catching at the skin of the head before changing direction again and moving back down.

When Rude began moving, Reno had to grab onto the door railing to keep from falling over. When he felt Rude's teeth enter the equation he arched off of the wall until he was nearly on his toes, ignoring the sharp pain in his ankle in favor of a breathy cry. When Rude started groaning and humming around him, the vibrations shook him to his core, and he couldn't have stopped his moans and cries if his life had depended on it. Then Rude brought his hands into the picture, and he was lost.

Devouring the noises that Reno was making with a greed that Rude hadn't realized he possessed, the large Turk released one of Reno's hips, bringing his hand around to rub gently between his partner's legs. Using the water and remaining soap suds to ease his way, he massaged the puckered skin around Reno's entrance with his forefinger before slowly slipping the tip of his finger inside. Too focused on the sensation of Rude's tongue wrapping around his cock, Reno barely even noticed the intrusion, even when Rude slid his finger in all the way to the first knuckle. He noticed when a second finger joined the first, but Rude was deep-throating him and groaning around him and Reno couldn't really bring himself to care – particularly when Rude curled his fingers in and rubbed up against his prostate. Too far gone to consider that there were probably cabins on either side of theirs, he was practically screaming by the time Rude added a third finger, twisting and stretching them while he stroked his partner.

Reno's screams quickly degenerated into high-pitched whimpers and begging before becoming entirely incomprehensible, and Rude smiled around the throbbing member in his mouth, suckling harder and stretching his thumb out to rotate against Reno's scrotum. The added stimulation was enough to finally tip the redhead over the edge, and his breath caught in a silent scream when he felt his body tighten, every muscle tensing and arching him away from the wall again, Rude's arm the only thing preventing him from toppling over. Rude swallowed, continuing to bob his head and stroke Reno's prostate until the teen's spasms had stopped. Then he pulled his head and his hand away, gently lowering Reno to rest on the floor of the shower, body cradled gently in his arms.

Reno relaxed there for a few minutes, savoring the afterglow of a good orgasm and the feel of Rude's warm body surrounding him. The soft pattering of the shower was almost enough to lull him to sleep before he shifted a little against Rude and realized that his partner still had a heavy erection. Too satisfied to care that similar activities with his father had hurt him as a child, Reno smirked and rubbed more purposefully against him. "What say we finish this, hm?" His voice was a husky whisper, and Rude groaned, tightening his arms around him and nuzzling his neck before sitting back abruptly. Reno didn't have any time to question what was going on before Rude gripped his waist and lifted him, standing in one smooth motion and stepping out of the shower without bothering to try and turn it off. Reno sucked in a quick breath, surprised at how easily Rude picked him up, before wrapping arms and legs around his partner, devouring his lips with another kiss. They were probably lucky to make it out of the head without Rude falling over at that point.

They did make it, however, and Rude laid Reno back on the bed, following his body down to draw him into another heated kiss. Reno whimpered, arching his hips up to rub against Rude's. He had never willingly bottomed for anyone before and hadn't really realized how pleasurable it could be, and he was more than ready to move on from fingers now. Rude didn't keep him waiting for very long.

Rude slid a hand down between their bodies, lightly palming Reno's semi-hard erection. He paused to enjoy the way Reno curled against him, rough fingers digging into his shoulders and breathy moans puffing against his collarbone, before cradling Reno close with his free arm and positioning himself at the redhead's still-stretched entrance. Reno stilled, quivering in anticipation, and Rude slowly slid himself inside.

Reno hadn't been aware that Rude's cock was pierced, but he was well acquainted with the fact now – he felt every hard ridge as the ladder of barbells slid in, felt when the thick ring on the tip rubbed against him. Rude's erection was a hell of a lot bigger than his fingers, and obviously so, but Reno loved every inch of it; he always _had_ enjoyed a little bit of pain…

Rude didn't stop until he was buried to the hilt, gasping as Reno's tight heat surrounded him. It had been far too long since the last time he'd done this. Too turned on to wait, and galvanized by the needy moans and small thrusting movements that Reno was trying to make, he pulled back out as slowly as he'd entered before slamming back in with one quick, hard thrust. Reno let out an explosive curse and arced off of the bed, his body exploding as the heavy ring bumped against his prostate on its way in. Fuck pain, this was _good_; that single thrust was enough to bring his own erection back full force.

Pleased with Reno's reaction, Rude set a steady pace, still cradling Reno with one arm. His other hand continued to palm at Reno's erection, and the redhead couldn't stop the stream of moans and garbled words that spilled out of his mouth; most of them were Rude's name anyway. He gripped Rude's shoulders tightly enough that the bald-headed Turk probably would have complained in a normal situation, feeling the flex of his shoulder and back muscles every time Rude pistoned his hips forward. The heavy pounding combined with the coarse hand on his erection brought him quickly back to a peak, and he clenched his thighs tightly around Rude's waist, rocking back against him in time with his thrusts and suckling on his neck and collarbone in a vain attempt to stop the endless flow of noises tumbling past his lips.

Rude felt him tensing and would have been relieved, had he not been too intensely focused on the way Reno was curling up against him to actually think; a long period of lonely nights had ensured that his own release would come quickly, and he increased the pressure in his hand while at the same time changing the tempo of his drives, stroking Reno's cock quickly and roughly but stroking his insides slowly and steadily, with a sharp rolling snap at the end of each thrust.

Reno had to fight to draw in a stuttering breath, which he immediately released in the form of a drawn-out moan. Every sharp jolt jarred both his body and his nerve endings, sending him into a spinning haze that swirled into a sparkling white blaze when he finally toppled over the edge, not even noticing that he was shouting Rude's name as he came. Rude followed moments later, body too tense to make a sound.

Reno shuddered, feeling Rude's rigid heat release inside of him, the larger man's body tense and coiled above him. Then he started to cry.

It took Rude a moment to start breathing again, to be able to see or hear anything, and so for a few seconds he didn't realize that Reno was crying. As soon as he did he started kissing the redhead's cheeks, forehead, eyelids, anything to soothe him and find out what was wrong. Reno started to laugh as soon as Rude asked, turning his quiet sobbing into loud hiccups, which quickly turned into a hysterical fit of giggling. It was a while before Reno calmed down enough to convince Rude that nothing was wrong; he just hadn't had anybody ever try so hard to make him feel that good. Tired and slightly embarrassed by his giggling fit, he decided not to make fun of Rude this time for blushing.

Slightly confused but thoroughly relieved that Reno was okay, Rude sighed and finally let his body relax, pulling his arm out from under Reno's head and shoulders and bracing himself as he pulled out. He wiped his other hand on the blankets before settling down next to his partner, absently noting that he could still smell Reno's shampoo even after the sex, and that it smelled pretty good. Reno stretched contentedly, and Rude smiled, watching the light gleam off of the sweat that laced his body. Their day was ending as it had started.

Reno caught sight of his stare and his smile and flushed, curling up on his side to return Rude's steady gaze. Rude's smile grew a little wider, and he reached out to stroke Reno's shoulder, admiring the way his sweat-slicked hand slid across the firm muscle there. Returning the smile with a small one of his own, Reno relaxed as Rude gave his exposed shoulder blade a tender massage, letting the gentle motion lull him to sleep. As his eyes slowly fell shut, he barely noticed the ache in his ankle or the cum that coated his stomach and seeped from between his thighs.

Rude briefly considered getting up to grab a towel and clean them off, but Reno moved before he could, sighing a little and snuggling close to Rude's chest, much in the same way he had that morning. Rude chanced a careful glance down and saw that Reno was still smiling a little in his sleep, and he decided that getting clean really wasn't worth erasing that smile at that point. With that thought in mind, he wrapped his arms more tightly around his partner, made sure that Reno's hair was flattened under his chin and wouldn't tickle his nose while they slept, and drifted into sleep.

* * *

**A/N:**

My ankle hurts, so… I can't wash my back. Dur… Never break Rule Number One. Cat Empire ftw :) I actually first listened to a song by that band as a result of reading a different fanfic (an AkuRoku fic in which Axel was the singer in a cover band for the Cat Empire… I forget the name of the fic now, since it was quite a while ago). The song I refer to in the shower scene is "Waltz", from the _Cities_ album… and it's not really mostly about cats swimming, but I love that line, so… :p

Sorry if the lemon is choppy, btw… I didn't sit down and write it all at once, so each paragraph might not flow perfectly into the next : /

Well, anyway… This is almost the end :( I was expecting the vacation to take more time, but it's going to end up fitting into two chapters, and the second part is already outlined, and will probably be typed within the next week or so. There will likely be an epilogue (Reno's birthday, or something to tie in to Axel, or both), but that's it for the main part of the story. I am still going to do Rude's prologue (about his past partner(s) and lover) and I'm going to do a story set about six years in the future when Axel is 18, and Reno finds him again, but I've had my shapeshifter story on the mind a lot lately, so I might kick that off before I start the others (I only have general ideas for those, so starting the _Shifter_ story would mean a faster update).

Thanks to all of you who have been following this story; your reviews and support have meant a lot to me. Hopefully I don't disappoint with the next story that I come out with :)

**Reviews:**

**Jennie300303 – **I wasn't going to have anything with the first chapter initially (ok, so my initial version of this was some extremely unrealistic crap involving a crane and chains dragging him down and a bomb in the middle of town, with a terrorist group at the center of it all :p), but I think I like how it turned out too. It was a cool way of writing it like the Reaping chapters were, with the tie-ins to the prologue and the flashbacks during Reno's fight with Tanner. Thanks for the review; glad you stuck around for it all :)

**RabidYaoiFanboy –**I've seen how those three behave in some other stories, and all I've got to say is, Tseng and Seph had better watch out when I start doing my one- and two-shot sequels :p Heh, Reno is about to have his 17th birthday… poor guy still hasn't managed to grow up :p He'll be a "real" adult in the big sequel though… we'll get to meet Rufus for the first time in that one too :) (Oh hey, I _did_ have specific ideas for that story… oh yeah…)

**Enter-witty-comment – **they may have departed into the land of ooc a bit this chapter… but I'm glad I've done a fairly decent job of it so far :) More soon: got it ;) Just sorry there isn't much more to write before the end…

**JuubiOokami – **heh, I forgot that this site does that to emails and web addresses… ah well. Thanks for the advice and well-wishes ;) If I need any suggestions I'll be sure to let you know, and if you ever want to do a collab of some kind in the future, I'm all for it :)

**Etrixan** – thanks :) I haven't forgotten about your character, either ;)

**Riku-Rocks** – lol, that seems to be the favorite line of the chapter :p And Sephiroth is just… awesome. When he's not psychotic and burning and killing everything in sight. O.o


	23. Ch 19 Family Matters

**Warnings: **Slight language, a ridiculous amount of hugging, and… the end?

* * *

_Chapter Nineteen – Family Matters_

* * *

The ship pulled into port in the morning of the third day of the trip. As the docks of Costa del Sol became more and more visible, Reno was drawn to the railing, staring at the sun-covered town for over an hour as the ship began to dock. Rude stood at his side, alternating between watching the port and watching his partner, but neither spoke; the silence was comfortable enough that neither really needed to.

Yesterday morning had been a little awkward (and, as Reno had later put it, "completely fucking disgusting") when they woke up together, still nude, entwined, and dirty, but the day had been clear and calm and it only took a quick wash in the (still running) shower and a light breakfast for them to settle into a comfortable rapport with each other. They spent the day wandering the deck and soaking up the sun, Reno content to let his ankle rest (for once) and Rude content to simply follow and watch him. If a few crew members laughed at how the two were suddenly completely relaxed around each other, or how Rude seemed to follow Reno around like a puppy, neither of them cared enough to actually do anything about it.

Their second night on board the ship had passed much like the first, except Reno was awake enough to insist on a shower before they fell asleep again. The ship's horn had heralded both the morning and their approach to port, and the relaxed aura of the previous day persisted throughout breakfast, only beginning to fade as the crew started tying lines. Reno was not altogether convinced that Rude's mother would like or approve of him, and Rude had started to consider her behavior towards his past lovers and started worrying about the same. Neither of them voiced their concerns, but when they finally stood on the dock with their bags, neither was in much of a rush to head toward Rude's villa. Reno shuffled his feet a moment, then coughed.

"I'm going to wander around here for a little bit if that's ok."

"Yeah, that's fine, that gives me the chance to make sure everything's ready for us when we get there. Just don't wander away from the docks, so I can find you when I get back."

"Mhmm."

Rude sighed, staring at him. "Reno… I'm serious." Reno paused in his perusal of the docks to stare at him, eyes wide and innocent.

"I won't go anywhere." Rude's eyes narrowed behind his shades.

"Promise?"

"Fuck, Rude, relax. I promise. You know me…"

Rude rolled his eyes, trying to maintain a stern façade and failing. "Yeah, that's exactly the problem." Reno laughed and waved him away, dropping his bags by the seawall and wandering over to the edge of the dock to peer down into the water. Shaking his head and hoping that his partner wouldn't have time to wander far before he returned, Rude grabbed Reno's bags before the redhead could notice and complain and turned and made his way towards his family's home.

* * *

"Mama." Amoa turned, smiling, and embraced her son. His large body dwarfed hers – it had since he'd turned 15 – but that didn't stop her from patting his cheeks and cooing over his closely-cropped goatee, which he hadn't had the last time she'd seen him. In short, she treated him like he was a boy again, returning home from a summer vacation. Rude sighed inwardly, glad now that Reno wasn't present to witness the event – the teasing would probably never end. His mother's mind was apparently on his partner as well.

"Decided not to bring that new partner of yours after all?" Her voice, normally warm and caring, had taken on a decidedly cold tone, the barest hint of a sneer in her voice making it clear that she didn't want his partner there anyway, and that it probably wouldn't upset her if he vanished entirely. Rude felt his chest clench and his throat tighten, and he had to forcibly remind himself that this was his mother, and that he shouldn't crush her skull. Unclenching his fists occurred only through sheer force of will, but a low rumble in his voice still betrayed his anger when he replied to her.

"He's here; he's at the pier still while I make sure everything is okay here."His eyes narrowed behind his sunglasses. "_Mama_. I expect you to treat him nicely; he's my partner, and he's a good person."

She sniffed. "You thought your first partner was a good person too." He growled, hands tightening into fists again.

"_He isn't like that._"

Amoa's eyes were sharp and calculating, and she quickly figured out just what had Rude so defensive of his partner. Her oldest child, so quiet and stoic and strong compared to the other two, was also in many ways the most vulnerable. His last partner – and lover – had nearly destroyed him; he hadn't always hidden his eyes behind mirrored sunglasses. She wouldn't let this new boy do that to him again.

"We'll see."

* * *

Predictably, Rude and Amoa didn't find Reno at the pier where he said he'd wait. Instead, Rude spotted him wandering barefoot through the sandy streets of the town, baggy cargo pants hiding his smooth legs and injured ankle, but white wifebeater displaying the toned muscles of his arms and shoulders quite nicely. The warm noon sun brought a healthy glow to his pale skin and turned his red hair into a riotous mass of flames, and for a moment Rude forgot to breath, nearly forgetting his mother's presence and striding over to either kiss or worship the unworldly image that his partner presented. Then he returned to his senses enough to wonder where the hell Reno's shoes were, and he shook his head, breath huffing out in a short laugh.

"Reno!"

* * *

The lure to explore was too much for Reno to resists, and he quickly found himself wandering the streets, passing from the warm cobblestones of the port area to the packed sand of the town. The houses were rustic and exotic all at once, their adobe walls gleaming golden in the warm tropical sun. The town's inhabitants wore clothing as brightly-colored as the birds that fluttered through the streets, and Reno quickly found himself charmed… if only because they reminded him of more brightly-dressed, cheerful versions of Rude. The laid-back atmosphere of the sunny town also appealed to him, it was so different from the harsh and fast-paced life that he was used to, and he ambled through the streets calmly, not paying attention to where he was going until his name was called.

He swung around quickly, spotting Rude standing next to a shorter woman who looked far too much like him to be anyone but his mother. Grinning at the partially amused, partially exasperated expression on his partner's face, he moved in their direction, abandoning his initial intent to bound over in favor of a slower walk when he felt his ankle twinge. His eyes flickered back and forth between Rude and his mother as he approached, wondering how it was that Rude took such pains to hide from the world and still managed to be so warm and easy to read, while his mother appeared so cold and remote. He made it about halfway over before a loud squawking voice caught his intention, and he found himself embroiled in one of the strangest conversations of his life.

"Hello!"

Reno eyed the creature in front of him warily, scanning slowly around himself to confirm that yes, it was actually the bird in front of him that was speaking. The bird was a bright scarlet color, with yellow and blue wings. And it was staring at him, clearly expecting a response. He blinked. "…Hello?"

"Hello!"

Reno frowned, not sure what he was supposed to say to the second salutation. "Hi…? I'm Reno…"

"Pretty bird!" Reno scowled. It was bad enough that the damned thing was _talking_ to him, now it was mocking his hair, too? He stepped forward, opening his mouth to start doing some serious trash-talking, but the bird beat him to the punch, letting loose with a string of "Pretty bird! Pretty bird! Pretty bird!" Reno's eye twitched, and he started growling.

* * *

Rude sighed, adjusting his shades in exasperation. Only _Reno_ would get into a fight with a damned _bird_. It was a good thing there weren't any children around, or the obscenities flowing out of his partner's mouth right now would have a horde of angry mothers after them with torches and pitchforks.

Amoa lifted an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "Is he mentally retarded?" Rude shook his head, to amazed by the spectacle before him to get defensive again.

"He's lived in the city his entire life, most of it below the Plate. He's never seen a parrot before, and I doubt anyone has ever warned him that some birds can talk."

Somewhat mollified by her son's response, Amoa couldn't suppress the smile of amusement that flitted across her face. The kid was adorable… even if she _was_ determined to hate him. Shaking his head again, Rude began to walk forward, deciding to intervene before either the parrot would up dead or Reno would up missing a chunk out of his skin. Amoa followed, carefully repressing the snicker that threatened to emerge when they got close.

"Reno, stop. The bird's an idiot."

"You're _damned right_ it is! It…" Rude held up a hand, forestalling another string of insults.

"No, seriously. It's a parrot, a macaw. Their throats are developed enough to speak and their brains are developed enough to mimic humans, but beyond that, they're morons, with tiny brains. Rico doesn't actually understand things the way people do."

"Rico?"

Rude pointed. "The bird. He's lived in this town for 30 years, actually."

"Thirty?" Rude nodded, and Reno sighed. "So you're saying I'm arguing with someone twice my age, and he's an idiot." Rude chuckled, nodding again, and Reno rolled his eyes and turned his back on the bird, clearly deciding that it was no longer worth his time. He looked back and forth between Rude and Amoa expectantly, and after a moment of wondering why, Rude jumped, apologizing.

"Sorry, I forgot that I haven't actually introduced you two yet. Reno, this is my mother, Amoa. Mama, this is Reno." Amoa was nothing if not polite, and she extended a hand, watching Reno carefully as he shook it. He returned the scrutiny, and Rude sighed, wondering if they were going to treat each other like rival wolves the entire vacation. Deciding that it wasn't a battle worth fighting right now, he turned them in the direction of home.

* * *

The villa had been empty when Rude first arrived, but now that was not the case. As the trio approached the front door, it slammed open and a girl dashed out, darting across the path too quickly for Reno to make out anything more than a blur of tanned skin and dark hair before she launched herself at Rude, squealing and tackling him in a hug. Staggering under the sudden weight, Rude grinned, one of the few times that Reno had ever seen a full smile on Rude's face that didn't involve _him_. Biting back a sudden and irrational surge of jealousy, he waited until Rude set the girl back on his feet before stepping over. Rude turned to him, holding the girl around the waist, and introduced them.

"Reno, this is my little sister, Etrix. ET." He smirked, sniggering when she jabbed him in the side with an elbow. "Sis, this is my new partner, Reno." Reno smiled and stuck out a hand, far more at ease around Rude's smiling sister than his mother, but she just snorted, wiggling out of Rude's grasp and embracing Reno too. Startled, it took him a moment before he returned the hug, and she giggled at him before letting go.

"Nice to meet you. Come on! I'll help you unpack your stuff." Rude glanced over at his partner in amusement, the realization that Reno had never had the benefit of having a sibling around fully sinking in for the first time. The bemused and slightly dumbstruck look on Reno's face was priceless, and Rude wished he had his camera out to capture the moment. They followed Etrix inside, Amoa trailing closely behind them.

The bags were laying just inside the door, and Rude again snatched them before Reno could reach them. Ignoring his partner's huff of irritation and grumbling about not being an invalid, Rude started up the stairs behind his sister. Amoa watched them start up, noting how Reno had to support most of his weight on his arms and left foot, pulling himself up with the banister rather than stepping up with his right. She frowned. Rude hadn't mentioned any injuries resulting from his latest mission; in fact, he had pretty much avoided discussing the mission at all. Now she wondered if his feeling for the redhead might have some merit after all; he wasn't one for befriending Turks who were too weak to do their jobs, and she suspected that there was a lot more to his partner than Rude had told her. Shaking her head, she allowed Etrix to show them to the room Reno would be staying in and turned away. The boys were probably hungry for lunch by now.

* * *

Rude and Reno unpacked, smirking and trading amused looks about the separate living quarters when Etrix wasn't looking, and then they all wandered back downstairs to eat. Reno was surprised to find sandwiches already made for them by the time they made it into the kitchen; his mother had never made him food without being ordered by his father to cook dinner, and he was under the impression that Amoa didn't particularly like him; the fact that she'd made him lunch startled him. Rude and Etrix both took note of his surprise, and although Etrix didn't say anything the look in her eyes promised questions later on.

The rest of the day passed by in a lazy haze. Rude and Etrix followed Reno out to the beach behind the house, watching as Reno rolled up his pants and waded into the surf. He was surprised to find small fish swimming around in the shallow water, their colors ranging from nearly transparent to vivid yellows and blues. He laughed when they darted forward to nibble at his toes and ankles, and Rude practically glowed at the sound. Reno laughed far too seldom. Etrix' gaze passed between her brother and his partner, and she smiled quietly. She had noticed the amused glances in Reno's bedroom, even if they _had_ been trying to hide them, and she was glad to see her brother happy again. It had been far too long since he'd let anyone get close to him.

* * *

Dinner that evening was a noisy affair. Reno learned that Rude had another sibling, a younger brother, who was attending a trade school on the Northern Continent; Etrix was in high school, and would be graduating next year. It didn't mean much to Reno, who had never been to high school, but Rude promised to attend her graduation, and Reno quickly discovered that he was incapable of saying no when she turned a pair of puppy-dog eyes on him and asked if he'd be coming too. He looked over at Rude in bafflement when Etrix turned back to her food, and across the table Amoa smiled to herself. The kid really _was_ adorable.

The mood continued to be light and friendly for the rest of the meal… right up until Etrix glanced over at Reno and asked about his family.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well… I have a little brother…" He sighed and continued at Etrix' urging, the girl too excited and curious to notice how ill at ease he was. Amoa noticed, however, and watched him closely. "His name was… is… Axel. I haven't seen him for a long time though." He picked at his food, obviously wishing the conversation was over.

"What about your parents?" Rude and Reno both tensed, and Etrix immediately wished she hadn't said anything.

"I don't talk about them." Reno's voice was tight, a mixture of anger and fear and grief, and Etrix didn't ask him any more questions. The question of his family remained unanswered, and Amoa didn't even try to bring up the subject of their mission. Dinner ended in uncomfortable silence.

* * *

Dishes after dinner was over were a quick affair, and Etrix shooed everyone else out of the kitchen to do them. Reno took the opportunity to slink out the back door, muttering something about taking a walk for a while, and Amoa followed Rude up to his room.

"What did that boy's parents do to him?" She sounded so upset and defensive that Rude could only stare for a moment, wondering what had made her change her mind so quickly. Her outraged glare didn't waver, however, and he sighed, shoulders slumping, and sat down on the bed.

"It's not really my place to tell you. I only know bits and pieces of it myself anyway; he doesn't ever talk about it so I've never heard the full story." He pulled off his sunglasses and rubbed his face tiredly, and Amoa crossed the room to sit next to him.

She thought for a moment, wanting to press for answers about Reno's past but knowing better than to push her son too hard on the issue. Giving a sigh herself, she asked the other question that was on her mind: "What happened on your mission?"

Rude didn't look at her, fiddling with the sunglasses in his hand for a moment before replying. "Well… it's a long story I guess. I guess… I guess it really started a couple of weeks _before_ the mission, maybe even before that, when Reno was still doing his Field Trials as a Trainee. The mission in the Slums I guess was really the worst of it though. The crime rate in the Slums had been skyrocketing for a little less than a year – since Reno became a Trainee, really. We were supposed to be gathering information about one of the new drug rings, and there was this informant we were going to talk to…"

* * *

Reno was sitting on top of the low wall that partially enclosed the patio when Amoa walked out to find him, a sketch pad on his lap. She thought about the breakdown in the Slums that Rude had told her about, and about his near-drowning experience in the small mountain town. Then she walked over, hopped up to sit on the wall next to him, and gave him a hug.

Reno froze when her arms wrapped around him, moody and paranoid by the thought of his parents and half-afraid she was about to try and strangle him. When she just continued to hold him, the moment passed and he hesitantly returned the hug. It took him approximately two seconds to register that she used the same body wash as Rude and had the same spiced chocolate scent, and only a few seconds more to lose all hesitation and snuggle in, still confused about why he was on the receiving end of a hug but too warm and content to really question it. If Amoa found his quick attempt to burrow into the embrace odd, she didn't say anything. Instead, she simply held him tighter, the same way she used to hold Rude when he was younger and less reserved.

They sat that way for a while before Amoa gave him a tighter squeeze and slowly let go. Sitting up, it occurred to Reno how weird his cuddling may have seemed, and he flushed slightly, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment. Amoa chuckled at him, putting him back at ease, before her gaze dropped to the sketch pad sitting on his lap.

It was a low-angle drawing of the beach, with a wave foaming up on the shore. Striped fish swam below the surface, the ripples of sunlight on the water casting shadows and distortions across their scaled surfaces. It wasn't finished – only half of it was shaded so far – but it was already beautiful. Amoa was enchanted for a moment, before she paused to wonder how someone who created such beautiful art could have such a painful past that he became a trained killer. Her eyes were sad when she looked back up at his face, and he shifted, knowing before she spoke what she was going to ask about.

"My mom… she used to drink a lot, and do drugs. And she was obsessed with being clean…"

* * *

Reno crept down the hall to Rude's room that night, late after Amoa and Etrix had gone to bed. Rude was waiting for him with the small table lamp next to the bed turned on, and he drew Reno into a warm hug before pulling him onto the bed. Reno smiled, cuddling back up as soon as they were seated, and Rude chuckled. For someone as loud and sarcastic as Reno normally was, he certainly had a soft side. Still smiling, Rude pushed the covers away behind them with one arm and lay down, tugging Reno down with him. A brief struggle for covers and optimal sleeping positions later, and they were nestled back together, Reno's head and arm resting on Rude's chest.

The soft crash of the surf outside slowly lulled them to sleep, and Rude smiled softly, fingers combing through Reno's hair. He didn't know what Reno and Mama had said to each other that evening, but it had done much to dissipate the tension left behind by dinner. Amoa had offered to walk with them to the Market the following day (rather, she had offered to take _Reno_ to the market the following day), and Reno had responded eagerly, more than willing to spend the day "hanging out" with her. He had called her "Mama" without even seeming to realize it, and she ruffled his hair, reminding Rude very much of the way she'd used to ruffle his own hair… back when he was younger and still let it grow out. It had taken less than a day, and Reno was already a part of the family.

Rude smiled again, shifting to wrap his arm across Reno's shoulders. Tomorrow was going to be a beautiful day.

* * *

**A/N:**

We never did find out what Reno did with his shoes… And macaws can live up to 85 years or so, if anyone's interested.

Check out this picture to imagine the kind of thing Reno was drawing (remove the spaces): http :// kristo1974. deviantart. com/art/Fish-n-rock-110306187 and now pretend he's drawing fish like that from an angle like this: http :// spanishalex. deviantart. com/art/Seashore-and-Starfish-60506861 (I'd draw it myself but… I'm not that good lol)

Aaanyway… **The End!!!** There will be an epilogue, and it's already written, so expect it posted very soon (I just have to look up some dates before I can post it :p). Reno's 17th birthday isn't going to be in the epilogue; I'm going to probably do it as a one-shot instead.

Speaking of one-shots, if anyone feels like yanking my universe here and writing some one-shots of your own, feel free :) I'd like a pm with a link to the story, and I do request that you don't introduce Vincent, Cissnei, or Rufus (I have plans for them ;) ), but otherwise you have free reign if you feel like it :p Rude's brother's name is Germain (or Jerry…) if anyone wants to talk about him at all.

Anywho, hope you've all enjoyed this :) Look for the epilogue soon, and hopefully I'll see you all again soon with the next story ;)

**Reviews!**

**Mehkaela –** Well, I didn't update nearly as quick as I'd planned (one week, riiight…), since writing Rude's mom took a lot longer than I'd planned, but here you go :) Glad you've enjoyed it!

**Charlie O. – **They move fast here, lol. Next thing you know and Reno will be stuffed into a white dress and dragged to the altar XP

**RabidYaoiFanboy – **lol, yeah, took them long enough :p Rude winds up confused a lot in this story I think…

**D0rkgoddess – **Thanks :) Hopefully finishing this one doesn't mean I'll take ages to officially start the next one, and there will be another update soon :p

**Riku-rocks – **Hmm… I'd be interested in reading another Reno story from you, I like the two you have posted so far :)

**RedSumacBlooming – **"Sly" was the first song I heard by them, and then "The Chariot". Found a cheap copy of _Cities_ on ebay and snapped it up :) Now I just need to find their other CDs, hehe

**Etrix** – indeed :) Those two need R&R for a seriously long time after all the crap I put them through :p

**Rogue solus** – thanks :)

**xNai-chanx – **Glad to see you back :) I know how you feel with graduation coming up… this is my last semester too and it's been pretty crazy :p (especially with midterms the week before last X( ). Not sure when I'll actually start Rude's prequel… Right now I only have a vague idea for it, so it'll probably be a while before I start actually writing it. I've been too focused on Reno to think up a story that doesn't have him in it :p


	24. Epilogue Falling

_Epilogue – Falling_

* * *

_Year 496_

The wind whipped across the top of the building, swirling around and ripping at his hair, his clothing. Reno sighed, letting his eyes slip shut for a moment before stepping towards the edge. He had planned this carefully; he didn't want his friends to see him, didn't want to fall past a window that would show them his descent, didn't want them to look for him and maybe find him and try to stop him. They were all in various meetings or training sessions; no one who mattered would witness his passing, and that pleased him. His life had caused too much pain as it was; it was time to end it all.

Everything stilled as he approached the edge, as though the entire world held its breath in anticipation of his fall. A sad, ironic smile graced his lips, and he fell away from the edge, the wind returning to cradle him as he plummeted towards the ground. It didn't feel like he was moving at all.

It was a painfully ironic twist of fate that had every person he cared about step outside at just that moment, just in time to hear Zack's scream of protest. The meetings and training sessions must have ended early; perhaps they hadn't happened at all. They were too late anyway.

The wind stripped away everything: the pain, the grief, the self-loathing. This was the most peaceful he'd felt in years, and a genuine smile lit his face now as he floated down into oblivion. The ground was nearing; his enhanced senses could tell. His eyes slid shut for the last time, and his smile relaxed into a peaceful countenance. His only regret was that he had never had the opportunity to find his brother…

The air ripped around him, and he had only a brief moment to realize that he was no longer falling from the top of the Shin-Ra building before he crashed to the ground, obliterating a large wooden conference table on his way down.

"What the _fuck_?!?" The peace of the fall immediately gave way to pained outrage; how the hell did this _happen_? He picked himself up roughly from the wreckage of the table, swearing and brushing away dust and splinters and blood, kicking at the wreckage around him in his anger. This didn't make sense, and it wasn't _fair_. He didn't even spare a glance at the people he sensed surrounding him, too intent on loosing his frustration to care. That is, until… "Jimmy?"

He froze, curses dying mid-syllable, hand frozen in the act of brushing woodchips off of his sleeve. Slowly, hardly even breathing, he lifted his gaze, seeing a pair of… _poisonous, acid green eyes sparkled up at him, an infant's high-pitched laughter ringing in the empty confines of the house_… acid eyes, wide with shock, looking down at him, dark eyeliner and tear-shaped tattoos framing the vivid poison that stared at him. "…Axel?"

* * *

**A/N:**

*whistles* And now you don't get to find out what's going on… for quite a while :p This epilogue is also the prologue for the sequel, which starts off 6 years in the future compared to _The Reaper_. I didn't put dates in the Reaper, but I might go back and add them in… Reno was born in 473, and the story ends in 489. Technically the sequel "starts" in 495, but the scene in the prologue occurs later in the story, so…

Used the date from Advent Children (498) to approximate the dates for my storyline :)


End file.
